


Uncharted: A Fox's Legacy

by Dangeresque_On_Ice



Category: Uncharted (Video Games), Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Friendship, Gen, Treasure Hunting, Zootopia/Uncharted
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2019-09-19 19:49:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 75,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17008095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dangeresque_On_Ice/pseuds/Dangeresque_On_Ice
Summary: Nick Wilde: Treasure hunter, adventurer, thief, and (supposed) descendant of renowned explorer Sir Francis Wilde.  With his grumpy mentor and an inexperienced but determined bunny reporter at his side, he'll set out on a journey to discover the truth behind his ancestor's final voyage. But not everything is as it first seems and the crew soon find themselves racing against a dangerous enemy in search of an ancient secret. Will their search for the truth bring them fortune and glory? Or are some secrets best left forgotten?





	1. Sunday Drives

 

_There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory._

                         - Sir Francis Wilde, 1584

 

On a remote chain of islands in the ocean, far beyond the reach of greater mammal society, an ancient stone road ran through a verdant area lush with vegetation. While some plants had managed to grow through cracks in the stone, the road itself remained relatively intact. The place felt abandoned, but it still felt very much alive; trees and bushes swayed in the wind and the chirping of birds and reptiles resounded throughout. Old ruins resided on either side of the path, giving the area a feeling of the serene as well as the mysterious. There was history to the place, it almost felt like one could take in the details just by breathing in the misty air and listening to the ambient sounds. It all helped to make the place feel peaceful, even tranquil.

 

Said tranquillity was disrupted however as a jeep recklessly tore through the area, sending primal animals scattering in all directions. On this jeep sat a grey-furred rabbit with black tipped ears wearing a purple sleeveless t-shirt and light brown cargo pants. She was awkwardly gripping a steering wheel that was slightly too big for her, trying her best to maintain control of the speeding vehicle. Behind the rabbit was a russet coloured and very panicked looking red fox. The fox was sporting a white shirt with its sleeves rolled up to the elbows and navy jeans, he also had an empty shoulder holster and a belt buckle sporting the image of a fox skull with crossbones. He was currently holding on for dear life to a weathered machine gun that had been mounted on the back of the vehicle.

 

The jeep was chaotically barreling past the ruins and down the ancient road. In any other situation, the fox would have taken the time to study such a fascinating find. Given how this island had supposedly been abandoned for hundreds if not thousands of years, it was strange that this path and ruins were still so intact and hadn’t been reclaimed by the jungle. Unfortunately, contemplating this mystery was not a luxury he could afford at the moment given the current company he and the rabbit had to deal with. The company in question consisted of several pursuing jeeps filled with armed and very unfriendly looking mammals, mammals who the fox was fairly certain did not share his same sense of archaeological curiosity. If his past experience with mercenaries was any indicator, they generally preferred to solve their problems through quicker and more violent means, and right now they viewed him and the bunny as one of those problems. 

 

“Carrots! They’re gaining on us!” the fox yelled, trying and failing to hide the panic in his voice. This was definitely not how he imagined this job going, but then again, things not going as expected was pretty par for the course in his life. The pursuing jeeps were rapidly closing the distance between them. It wouldn’t be long before they were close enough to open fire on them, and even then, there was no telling how much longer he and the rabbit could keep this up before they either hit a dead end, wiped out, or were hit by some other stroke of bad luck.

 

“I’m pushing this thing as fast as it’ll go, Nick!” _Carrots_ yelled back. “You’re the one clinging to a machine gun, how about using it to get them off of us!”

 

Nick wasn’t like some of the other psychos in this line of work, he didn’t enjoy killing, but he also knew that it was often unavoidable given the cutthroat nature of most of the competition. When it came to treasure hunting, those that weren’t able to kill either quit or wound up as fertilizer, and Nick wasn’t keen on either of those options. He firmly gripped the mounted gun hard and aimed it at the approaching jeeps; poring some fire in their direction might just be enough to force them back, that or make them crash, whatever, as long as it reduced the likelihood of him or the rabbit catching a bullet. He took a deep breath before pulling the trigger.

 

* _click_ *

 

“Uh oh…”, maybe the gun was just jammed. He ejected a round from the chamber and tried again.

 

* _click_ *

 

“Crap….” he tried pulling the trigger a third time.

 

* _click_ *

 

Still nothing….

 

* _click_ *

* _click_ *

* _click_ *

 

“Crap! Crap! Crap!” He would’ve asked himself if his luck could possibly get any worse, but he was pretty that would have been taken as a challenge and he'd just end up having to deal with something even worse. 

 

“Nick! What’s going on back there?” The rabbit yelled, concern bordering on panic becoming apparent in her voice, she probably wasn’t looking to get shot or run off the road any more than he was.

 

“This piece of crap is busted!” Nick called back, slapping his paw against the gun in frustration. “I can't get these guys off of us!”

 

Unsurprisingly, the answer did little to calm the rabbit. “Can’t you figure something else out then? You were the one who said good treasure hunters know how to improvise!”

 

Nick was about to retort but instead found himself slamming down onto the jeep floor as the roar of machine gun fire broke out, followed shortly by a hail of bullets flying through the space he had just previously been occupying. He kept his body as flat against the surface as possible while bullets whizzed over his head, bouncing off or tearing through the vehicle's frame. All he could do was lay flat against the floor bed and hope that he and the bunny didn't end up catching any strays.

 

Once the firing had stopped, he grasped the machine gun, trying to pull himself up so he could figure out what had just happened. The jeep had taken a beating from that salvo, but given the fact that it was still tearing through the jungle at an alarmingly fast speed, he guessed nothing important had been hit. It seemed the fox still had at least some luck, if he wasn’t trying to keep from being thrown off the jeep by the rabbits evasive driving, he might’ve even taken a sigh of relief.

 

Any relief he felt rapidly disappeared as he saw one of the jeeps speeding up beside them to his left, a Kudu helming the wheel and an African wild dog in the back giving them a rather irritated glare as he fumbled to try and reload his jeeps own mounted gun. The fox turned to warn the rabbit only to see the path they were driving on disappear over the edge of a cliff that overlooked a massive body of water.

 

“Cliff! Cliff! Cliff!”

 

Nick yelped in panic as the jeep swung to the left, plowing through the bushes and driving onto a rocky outcropping along the edge of the cliff. Much to his chagrin, the pursuing jeeps copied the maneuver, swerving to avoid the drop-off and following them onto the same rocky cliffside. Now that he and the rabbit were caught between a deadly drop off on one side and an impassable barrier on the other, there was very little room to maneuver.  The fox seemed to have unnatural levels of luck when it came to being shot at, but he doubted he’d be lucky enough to escape unscathed from another salvo in such a tight corridor.

 

“Uhh Carrots, we’re kinda boxed in right now!” he shouted, “the minute they reload that gun of theirs, we’re dead!”

 

The rabbit reached for something next to her and handed it back to him. “Try this.”

 

Nick grabbed for it before realizing it was a grenade, his brow furrowed, “Uhhh...are you sure you don’t have a gun?”

 

“Not exactly the best time to be picky Nick!”

 

The fox turned to face the closest of the pursuing jeeps and took a deep breath, lobbing a grenade from one speeding jeep to another wasn't exactly the simplest of tricks.

 

_Please let this work_.

 

He pulled the pin on the grenade and tossed it towards the other jeep, to his delight, he saw the beeping explosive land right in the bed of the jeep, only for that delight to turn into a combination of dread and embarrassment as the grenade continued to bounce out of the jeep, and over the adjacent cliff before harmlessly exploding far away from its intended target. Nick briefly saw the face of the wild dog mercenary on the gun, he seemed rather unimpressed by the whole display.

 

_Well shit…_

 

Nick’s companion seemed to have noticed his failed throw. “Let me guess, you missed,” it probably had to do with the distinct lack of an exploding jeep.

 

Nick struggled to come up with an excuse, “It bounced...funny,” he realized how bad that sounded as soon as he said it. _Really Nick? That’s the best you could come up with?_

 

“It _bounced_ funny? You know, for all your bragging, I’d expect you to be a lot better at this sort of thing!” the rabbit exclaimed in an exacerbated tone.

 

“Hey, I’m not the one who picked the jeep with a busted gun!” Nick countered. “You’re so quick to call me out but how about you try getting rid o-” he was cut off and quickly found himself slamming into the mounted gun he was holding on to as the rabbit shifted the jeep to the right and slammed it into the side of their pursuers. The kudu driver was caught off guard by the maneuver and lost control of the jeep as it swayed from side to side before veering off the cliff, taking both of the mercenaries with it into the abyss below.

 

“Oh….well that works...” Nick sputtered through pained gasps as the jeep evened out and he pried himself off the mounted gun that had so rudely slammed into his rib cage.

 

“What was that? You were about to say something about me doing it myself?” he heard the bunny gloat, even with the sound of the engine and the rushing wind, he could still hear the cockiness in her voice.

 

“Ya, ya, very nice,” the fox sarcastically shot back, “now tell me how you’re gonna get their buddies to fall for that trick, then I’ll be impressed!” 

 

The other two jeeps were closing in, staying directly behind them where the rabbit wouldn’t be able to ram them. Despite his sarcastic jab, Nick was disappointed to see that the pursuing drivers would not allow her to repeat that trick, as much as he'd hate having to deal with the bunnies gloating later, it still beat dying. While these jeeps were not equipped with the same mounted guns as the one the rabbit had knocked off the cliff, the closest one had something much more bizarre and alarming. Despite his disbelief, Nick saw a lion mercenary as he worked his way onto the hood the vehicle he had been riding.

 

_What the hell is he doing?_

 

The lion proceeded to crouch down in preparation for what the fox could only assume was a forward leap.

 

_There’s no way he’d-_

 

The lion sprung off the hood and landed on the back of their jeep, his legs dangling over the edge. The jeep buckled from the impact but managed to maintain its momentum. The larger mammal was quick to dig into place with his claws to keep from slipping off the back.

 

_Okay, maybe he would._

 

Nick sprang forward to try and shove their newest passenger off, only to find himself crashing into an immovable wall of kevlar. In the heat of the moment, he'd forgotten that there was no way he would be strong enough to shove back something as large and strong as a lion. This realization was followed shortly by a heavy force smashing into the fox's forehead. Nick flew backward as stars exploded around him and he collided with the back of the driver's seat. Ignoring the pain, he quickly shook his head and his vision began to clear. He saw that the lion was bleeding from the nose and still trying to pull himself up onto the truck, it looked like the genius had failed to connect properly with the headbutt, hurting himself in the process.

 

_Guess I should be glad he didn't go for the muzzle._

 

The fox looked around for a solution, he needed to stop that lion from pulling himself up onto the jeep, he wasn’t sure what the lion had in mind, but it would probably end with Nick being turned into a scratching post. 

 

_Crap, I  really wish I had a gun working gun right now_. He looked at the mounted gun. _Although..._

 

He grabbed the gun's barrel and viciously swung it down right into the lions face. The sound of metal colliding against flesh and a pained grunt could be heard as the barrel smashed into the lion's muzzle. Nick wasn’t sure how much damage he'd done, but judging from the cracking he heard and the much larger amount of blood now squirting from the large mammal's nose, he was pretty certain he had broken something. This lion’s grip on the jeep started to falter and he dug his claws further into the metal in a desperate bid to keep from falling off the back.

 

“No free rides!” Nick yelled as he swung the gun down into the lions face a second time. That did the trick and the mercenary's grip finally gave away.  He let out a panicked cry as he fell tumbling onto the ground only to be run over by a pursuing jeep. The driver attempted a swerve to avoid the large mammal but only succeeded in rolling the jeep over as it hit the unexpected speed bump.

 

The other jeep swerved to avoid getting caught up in the crash, giving the rabbit and fox some much-needed room. The hyena gunner on the jeep fired at them with his assault rifle but the jeep was moving too much for him to make any steady shots, the bullets all missing their target by a large margin.  There was always the risk he would get a lucky shot but that was a pretty minor concern, especially given the much larger concern of two additional jeeps with mounted guns that had managed to catch up to the action.

 

Nick groaned in frustration, “These guys just don’t give up!”

 

“Uh Nick, we’ve got a problem, more up ahead!”  _Carrots_ yelled in a worried tone. Nick turned to see what she was yelling about, only to see three more mounted jeeps and an alarmingly large number of armed mercenaries setting up a roadblock right in their path. “What do we do?!?”

 

“Uhhh...I don’t know.” Nick stammered, his mind racing to come up with some sort of plan. He looked over at the cliff they were driving next to, he hadn't really had a chance to look before, but now he noticed the large body of water below was actually a large lake.

 

_Maybe we could…_ _no, that would be insane._

 

The rabbit seemed to have noticed the lake as well and gave Nick a look filled with determination before turning back to face the rapidly approaching roadblock.

 

“Carrots...no!” Nick tried to reason. “Best case scenario, we break our damn necks from a drop like that!”

 

“Not like our other options are any better!” she responded, not looking back.

 

As soon as the mercenaries ahead of them began opening fire, the rabbit swerved the jeep to the side, sending it over the cliff and into the lake below.

 

“Ohhhh craaaaaaaaaaaaaap!”

 

The fox’s screaming continued until the jeep connected with the lake's surface and he was promptly thrown from it. The sudden rush of water shocked him and his vision rapidly darkened as he sunk into the murky depths below.

 

* * *

 

 

**One Week Earlier**

 

“You got us lost again, didn’t you?” a deep voice growled, snapping Nick out of his thoughts. He turned over to look at the mammal in question, a sandy coloured fennec fox that seemed far too small to have such a deep voice. The small fox wore a red pocketed t-shirt with tan cargo pants and was currently gripping the steering wheel of their motorboat. He was showing signs of old age with streaks of grey fur visible on his muzzle, but it hadn’t done too much to slow him down, or least he’d often boast that it didn’t. He was Nick’s grumpy partner, mentor, and best friend; while most mammals knew him as Finnick, Nick had a much more aggravating nickname for him.

 

“Ah, come on Gramps, you worry too much! Besides, we’re treasure hunters!” Nick threw his arms in the air, gesturing dramatically. “Adventurers!” he only managed to get an irritated scowl from his diminutive partner for his efforts. “Real treasure hunters never get lost! We’re just on the way to finding _new_ adventures!”

 

“Yeah, well if we’re finding new adventures, they’d better be the kind that gets us paid,” Finnick responded, the scowl loosening a bit but still remaining plastered on his face.

 

“And we will little guy,” Nick said, patting the smaller fox on the head. “In the twenty years we’ve known each other, have I ever given you any reason to doubt me?” A smug grin appearing on the larger fox’s face as he said it.

 

Finnick bared his teeth, “You don’t want me to answer that,” he growled before slapping away Nick’s paw. “And if you touch me like that again, I’ll-”

  
  
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you’ll bite my face off. You really need to change up your comebacks,” Nick interrupted, dismissively waving his paw in the direction of his aggravated partner.

 

He reached into a small pack attached to his belt, pulling out a worn journal that had a piece of tape slapped on the cover with the words ‘Francis Wilde’ written on it. He flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out a map that was yellowish in colour and faded with age, it depicted a coastline with one area circled in red ink. Above the circled area was a drawing depicting a distinct looking rock formation with a natural archway that ran underneath it as well as four spires shooting upwards that caused it to resemble a paw with an arched hole at the bottom. A phrase had been written next to the picture in the same red ink that had been used to mark the map: ‘The paw will show the way.’

 

“And seriously, we’re not lost. Sir Francsis' expedition definitely came this way.” Nick gestured to the map, pointing at the picture, “All we have to do now is find this landmark and it should lead us to whatever he was looking for out here.”

 

Finnick simply grunted before turning his attention back to the steering wheel. That was usually as close as he ever got to being in a good mood without alcohol or a girl being involved so Nick decided to accept the victory and move onto other matters.

 

The red fox took the opportunity to take in his surroundings, he had spent so much time either navigating or planning that he never really had a chance to really look over the shoreline they had spent the last several hours coasting along. As far as he could see, the shore was covered in sheer cliffs of white limestone. The surfaces were mostly straight, although signs of erosion could be seen from the endless crashing of ocean waves against them, and the way the sunlight reflected off the surface caused it to glow. This combined with the glittering of the water created a brightness that many mammals would have thought was quite beautiful, but to a nocturnal mammal like Nick, was just irritating and gave him a headache. All of a sudden, taking in the scenery didn't seem to so appealing anymore. Instead, he distracted himself with the ring tied around his neck, rubbing it between his thumb and index fingers. It wasn't anything fancy, a silver ring band with an engraving that read 'Sic Parvis Magna' on it and nothing else, but it was still important to him, it reminded him of why he followed this path in life. Treasure hunting was a rough and dangerous way to live, but he had a hard time imagining himself doing anything else. The ring certainly did a lot to inspire him to keep pressing on, but he still couldn’t help but wonder how things could have been if his life had gone in a different direction.

 

Before he could continue that line of thought, Nick found himself snapped out of his thoughts again by Finnick as he spoke up. “Maybe you should let our  _friend_ over there know what’s up instead of staring at that damn ring all day.” The desert fox gestured over to a small grey rabbit near the back of the boat. She held a camcorder in her paws, one of those fancy _Pandasonic_ models that would probably get her mugged by most mammals in this line of work if they knew how much those things were actually worth. She was recording the cliffs they had been sailing past, taking in every single detail from the looks of it.

 

Nick furrowed his brow as he watched the bunny, he didn’t know much about her beyond the fact she was some reporter from Zootopia who had been focusing on stories pertaining to archaeology. He had never been a fan of working with mammals who were unfamiliar with the treasure hunting business, especially those coming from Zootopia of all places, but money had been pretty tight and she had the funds they needed for this trip, he couldn’t afford to be picky.

 

“Hey, Carrots!” He called out to the rabbit, not getting a response back. With ears that large, there’s no way she would’ve normally missed that, she must’ve been too focused on filming.

 

He got a bit closer and tried again, “Hopps?” Once again, she failed to notice, her attention still fixed on the cliffs along the shore. This bunny was clearly stuck in her own little world right now.

 

Deciding that enough was enough, he approached her from behind and bent down so that his muzzle was right next to her ears before yelling loud enough to ensure she would finally take notice, “Hey Judy!”

 

The next thing Nick knew, he felt something small and grey connect with the side of his head, everything went fuzzy after that. The next thing he knew he was flat on his back with his arms, legs, and tail all sprawled in random directions. Once his vision stopped spinning, he saw a worried looking bunny in a purple t-shirt standing over him, the camcorder she had been holding was swaying back and forth from a strap around her neck. She was trying to say something that he couldn’t quite make it out. He also swore that he could hear a deep voice laughing in the background.

 

Nick let out a groan before speaking up, “You’re gonna have to repeat that, rabbit…”

  
  
“Are you okay?” the rabbit asked in a concerned voice. The deep laughing of what the red fox now realized was Finnick could still be heard, apparently he was laughing too hard to drive since the boat seemed to have stopped moving and he couldn't hear the engine anymore.

 

“I’m okay….I think…” Nick groaned as he shook his head and snapped himself out of his daze. _Underestimating the bunny already are you Wilde?_ Nick silently chastised himself. _Way to forget the first lesson of being a treasure hunter._

 

A relieved look appeared on the rabbit's face as she offered a paw. Nick reached forward and grabbed it, letting her help pull him up. “Cheese and crackers Mr. Wilde, you really shouldn’t sneak up on mammals like that!”

 

“Didn’t think you’d be so jumpy Carrots,” Nick grunted as he finished getting to his feet and brushed himself off. “Besides, I wasn't sneaking up on anything, I yelled at you several times before you decided to roundhouse me.” He groaned again as he rubbed at the side of his head where the bunnies foot had connected, “What the hell was that anyway? Some sort of bun fu?”

 

“I’m aware of how dangerous it can be out here Mr. Wilde, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t know how to take care of myself.” She grabbed the camera hanging from her neck and checked it over before glancing back at Nick with a mildly irritated look on her face. “And how many times do I have to tell you, it's Judy, not _Carrots_?”

 

“What? You don’t like my term of endearment?” Nick asked with a shrug, “also, call me Nick, Mr. Wilde is way too formal, makes me feel all weird and….wrong.” He made an exaggerated shudder to emphasize his point.

 

“Alright _Nick_ ,” Judy conceded, “but can you at least stop calling me Carrots?”

 

He stroked his chin in mock thought for a second before speaking, “I could call you Fluff? Do you like Fluff? I think it sounds pretty nice.”

 

Judy raised a finger, looking as if she might try to argue some more before apparently deciding it wasn’t worth the effort and lowered it again. “Moving on...what was it you wanted to tell me so badly that you felt the need to start yelling in my ears?”

 

“Well _Carrots_ , before you smacked me upside the head, I was going to let you know we found the area Sir Francis was evidently so interested in,” he gestured to the coastline they had been sailing past. “Those cliffs you were so enraptured with just so happen to be part of the coastline he charted.”

 

Nick retrieved the map from his journal and showed it to Judy, tapping at the circled landmark with a clawed digit. “Now all we have to do is find this ‘paw’ Wilde marked, and it should lead us to whatever he was looking for out here.” He passed the map to Judy before turning his head to yell in Finnicks direction, “Assuming _some_ mammals can stop laughing long enough to get off their tails and start driving the damn boat, Gramps!”

 

“Come on kid, you can’t seriously expect me to handle the boat after watching you get laid low by a bunny,” Finnick managed to get out between fits of laughter, “that’s gotta be a safety hazard or something!”

 

A flash of irritation crossed Nick’s muzzle that was mirrored by the rabbit next to him, “Really Gramps? Because I seem to remember you being the one who always goes on about how any mammal can be dangerous.”  Nick would admit, he had made a big mistake in assuming the bunny wouldn’t have tried or even could've been able to knock him flat like that. Any mammal could be deadly in this line of work, regardless of size. Hell, the small ones frequently ended up being the deadliest since dumb rookies were often quick to dismiss them as an actual threat. It was easy to forget that the size of a mammal didn’t matter much they were holding a gun to your head or a knife to your throat. Nick rubbed his still sore head, they could also kick pretty hard it seems.

 

“I know, that’s what makes it so funny,” Finnick answered as his laughter finally died down. “That head of yours is already too big, you need a good humbling like that to remind you of the rules and why we follow ‘em,” his voice then took on a more serious tone as he shot his larger partner a piercing look, “because it won’t be nearly as funny if you screw up like that against some asshole who actually wants you dead.” Caught off guard by the jarring shift in tone, Nick was unable to come up with any retort before the smaller fox started up the engine again and returned his focus to driving the boat.

 

Nick looked over at Judy and saw a worried look in her eyes. He figured that despite her previous claims, a reporter wasn’t exactly used to the kind of dangers that came with treasure hunting. He tried to lighten the mood with an insincere smile and equally insincere laugh, “Ha...ha..., well that’s Gramps for ya, can be a real downer at times. Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t get as bad as he claims.” A lie, of course, it could and frequently did get that bad, if not worse. Regardless, turning back now would’ve been very problematic given the risks he had already taken to make this expedition happen in the first place. He needed to find a way to placate the bunny before she got any ideas about abandoning this whole thing.

 

Clearing his throat with a cough, the fox continued, “Anyways, we’re on the right track, if Sir Francis came out here, we’ll find what it was he was looking for once we hit that landmark.”

 

Judy looked down at the map, her brow furrowing in concentration. Nick wasn’t sure if she was actually mulling over the details or just trying to distract herself from Finn’s ‘uplifting’ little speech. She looked back up at Nick, “Did you seriously mark up Wilde’s 400-year-old map!?”

 

That wasn't exactly the reaction Nick had been expecting from her, still, it was better than having her dwell on Finnicks words. “What?” he shrugged, “he wouldn’t mind.”

 

The rabbit gave him an incredulous look, “I just can’t believe you would do something so thoughtless to an important artifact like that, especially one that belonged to your ancestor." She lectured, waving the map in his face. "I mean seriously Nick, this is a piece of history!” 

 

The irony of her lecturing him on how to treat artifacts while waving the map around in such a reckless manner was not lost on the fox, but he decided against calling her out on it. “Trust me Fluff, that’s nothing compared to what we’re on to here.” A smug grin then started to appear on his face when he noticed her choice of words, “besides, I seem to recall you not believing me when I said that.”

 

“Well I _did_ do my research, and apparently Sir Francis Wilde didn’t have any heirs,” Judy stated, a healthy dose of skepticism in her voice.

 

“Well history can be wrong, that’s why you’re all the way out here with us, isn’t it?” Nick pointed a clawed digit at the rabbit. “Officially, historians say Sir Francis retired in 1596 and never left the Pine Isles again, and yet you came all the way out here with us because  _you_ intend to prove otherwise.”

 

Before Judy could respond, Finnick called over to them. “Hey, Kid! You and the bunny better get your tails in gear, ‘cause unless I’m seeing things, it looks we’ve just found that ‘paw’ of yours!”

 

Nick and Judy both directed their gazes over to the coastline. Just as the old desert fox said, the giant ‘paw’ they had been looking for was visible in the distance and rapidly growing in size as they sailed closer. It towered far above the cliffs around it with finger-shaped structures jutting into the sky and ring like patterns encircling them as they went down to what could best be described as the giant paw's 'pad.' At the base of it was a large opening leading to a bay with a beach landing visible on the opposite end. 

 

Seeing that they had finally reached the next step in their search, Nick looked over at Judy with an eager glint in his eye. “Well then, I guess it’s time for us to get going,” he took the map back from her, placing it back in his journal. He placed a paw on the rabbit's shoulder and looked into her eyes, seeing a similar eagerness with a hint of what he assumed was nervousness. “Now come on, let’s go find out what it was our dear buddy Sir Francis was doing out here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, there we go, my first fanfic (second if you want to count the Star Wars fic I started for half an hour before getting bored and moving onto something else back when I was 8, but whatever). So I had the idea of an Uncharted/Zootopia mashup rattling around in my head for a while but it wasn't until recently that I got down to actually doing it. Gotta give a shout out to Pandora (paperclipbutterfly), LordKraus and LionKingAlex, you guys are the biggest reasons I ended up doing this, so thanks for the support (unless this ends up being a disaster, in which case this all totally your guys' fault! :P ). I'm aiming to tell a mostly original story, although I'll still be borrowing material from Uncharted and Zootopia as long as it fits. I can't make any guarantees, got some things that may or may not kill a lot of my free time down the line, but I'll do my best to update on a regular schedule. Anyways, hope you enjoy the fic and all the adventure, snark, and trigger-happy mercenaries that come with it. Until next time, Sic Parvis Magna!


	2. On the Trail of Sir Francis Wilde

“Michael McDonkey?”

 

“No, Fleetwood Yak?”

 

“Can’t say I have, Fluff, maybe Kenny Doggins?”

 

“Nope, not him either, how about Guns N’ R- _ACK!”_ Judy yelped in surprise.

 

“Guns N’ Rack?”

 

Nick heard a bunch of sputtering before the rabbit finally spoke up again. “Sorry, got slapped in the face by a branch.” Some more sputtering followed before she continued, “I think I got some of it in my mouth...”

 

“Gotta be more careful, Carrots,” Nick chuckled. “Never know what you’ll run into out here, from nasty pitfalls to surprise attacks from angry plants.”

 

They had been trekking through the jungle for nearly an hour now. Finding a good spot to moor the boat once they reached the beach was easy enough, but searching for whatever Sir Francis had found out here proved to be a far more difficult task. That was the problem with searching for long-forgotten sites in thick jungles far from civilized society, you couldn't just punch in the GPS coordinates, and whatever guides or maps you used were probably vague and out of date.

 

While they eventually managed to find an ancient path that hopefully would lead them in the right direction, the thick brush throughout the jungle and even covering the path itself made the area difficult and exhausting to traverse. The stubborn vegetation combined with the intense heat and humidity of the jungle pressed down on them hard, but Judy and Nick had been coming up with random activities to help distract themselves from the oppressive conditions. Discussing the bands each of them listened to was just their most recent activity before the plant's surprise attack.  Finnick, however, hadn't shown interest in any of their activities, instead just following them and occasionally grumbling about how much he needed a cigar.

 

Nick looked up and saw an opening where the thick vegetation seemed to finally let up. “On the bright side, you won’t have to worry about being menaced by plants anymore,” he pushed through the last of the bushes and descended into a rocky gully with a flowing stream at the bottom.

 

The fox stopped for a second as he waited for the others to catch up. His fur was probably a sticky mess at this point and he could feel his tails and ears starting to sag, so a relatively easy hike through the gulley was definitely appreciated. As he splashed some water in his face to help cool off, he saw a noticeably tired yet determined Judy break through the bushes behind him, still struggling to shake off loose twigs and leaves that had managed to get caught in her muddled fur.

 

"Hey, Judy! Think fast!"

 

"Huh?  _EEK!"_ the rabbit squeaked in surprise as water from the stream was splashed into her face.

 

"Aww, didn't think fast enough," Nick laughed. 

 

"You're lucky that water was exactly what I needed, or I'd be furious right now." Nicks surprise had left the rabbit dripping from her ears down to her waist. She seemed partially annoyed but mostly refreshed by the blast of cool water. "So I'll let it slide this time."

 

"Your mercy is appreciated, Fluff."

 

There was more rustling in the bushes as Finnick finally pushed his way through and into the gulley, looking to be in a miserable state. While the desert fox generally did a good job of hiding it, his age had definitely slowed him down over the years and it was obvious how exhausted he was.

 

“Hold...up...you two!” Finnick forced out between exhausted pants, “I’m not as young as I used to be.”

 

The older treasure hunter looked like a wreck, his fur was a ruffled mess with his tail sagging against the ground and his large ears limply hanging from his head. He was bent over at the knees, looking like he was about to keel over from the exhaustion. Given his age, having to push through a jungle filled with vegetation that frequently towered over him couldn’t have been easy. That being said, the stubborn old fox always managed to keep up despite all the wear and tear, something that Nick had always admired about him and would often find a way to compliment him on in a back-pawed manner.

 

“You weren’t too old for that otter bartender back in Bochi,” the red vulpine chuckled.

 

“Ha! Well, that was different, although I must admit, equally exhausting.”

 

Judy was staring at the two foxes with a perplexed look on her face, her head tilted in confusion, “What are you two talking about?”

 

Nick jabbed a thumb in Finnicks direction as the small fox was bent over the stream and throwing water into his face, “Well, Ol’ Gramps here just so happens to be quite the charmer when it comes to the ladies, he’s always got a story or two to tell as long as you don’t mind some vivid details.”

 

“Ah Marisa, that otter was one hell of a sweetheart, had a smile that would melt your heart and a muzzle like you wouldn’t believe,” as Finnick talked, Nick noticed a pink tint on Judy’s face and a steadily increasing look of dread as she realized just where the diminutive fox was going with this. “A real firebrand too, those claws of hers weren’t just for show, and she sure as hell wasn't afraid to use 'em it if she ever caught you messing around,” Finnick continued, his muzzle starting to curl into a nostalgic smile.  “Wee little thing as far as otters went, but oh mam, even for a mustelid, the way she could twist that body of hers was a marvel to behold, they called her 'The Spinner'‘cause of the way she’d use her tail to-”

  
“Okay! Okay! That’s enough! Cheese and crackers, that’s not something I need to hear about!” Judy cut in, holding her ears against her head in embarrassment and her face positively glowing red beneath her wet fur. “I’m sure you and this ‘Spinner’ had a wonderful time together, but I’d rather not hear the details, thank you very much!”

 

Finnick shrugged, “Your loss sweetheart, I’ve got tons more you’d be missing out on, like this one time-”

 

Nick cleared his throat, putting an end to his mentors reminiscing, “As entertaining as the prospect of watching Fluff die from awkwardness would be, I think it’s about time we got back to the whole treasure hunting thing.” He turned and started making his way down the gulley, Judy catching up to him while Finnick followed behind.

 

“Wasn’t he just about to pass out a few minutes ago?” the reporter whispered to Nick. “Now you'd think he was never tired in the first place.”

 

Nick nodded his head in Finnicks direction, “When it comes to bragging about his past conquests it doesn’t matter how tired he is, Ol’ Gramps will always find his second wind.”

 

“Hey, I don't just talk about conquests, I take pride in all aspects of my work," Finnick beamed as the other two kept walking. "Like that time I pawned a phony Santo Hedeta idol off on Big back in Zootopia, pretty risky move, but by the time he figured it out, I was...Hey! Are you two even listening?"

 

"Hanging on your _every_ word, Gramps."

 

"Bah, why waste my breath..."

 

Things were quiet for the next few minutes as they just appreciated the easier hike in silence and occasionally splashed some more water on their faces before Finnick finally spoke up again, "You really think Sir Francis came all the way out here? We’re a long way from the Pine Isles.”

 

“Well the map says he came this way, I don't see why he'd lie about it,” Nick answered as he continued forward, scanning the trees and visible horizon for any signs of mammal-made features.

 

“Well, if he’s your ancestor, then I figure he’s probably as full of crap as you are and just made it all up to impress a girl or something.”

 

Nick snickered at the jab, “If he was like me, then he just wanted to show everybody else how awesome mammals like us are.”  It was then that he noticed a structure that was poking out of the trees in the distance. He pointed out the ruins for the others to see, shooting Finnick a smug grin as he did, “and to show what idiots everybody else is for doubting us.”

 

Upon seeing the structure in the distance, Judy immediately sped off running, briefly turning around to face the two foxes and hop with giddy excitement. “Come on guys! What are you waiting for? This could be one of the greatest archaeological finds in years!” She turned around and sped off again.

 

Nick shook his head with a smile, “Huh, guess that's what gives her a second wind then. Can’t remember the last time you were ever this excited about finding something.”

 

“Yeah, well, I’ll save my excitement for when we've got something that actually pays,” Finnick grumbled.

 

“Well then, better make sure you can keep up if you want your cut old timer,” Nick snarked before rushing on ahead. Finnick let out an irritated sigh and ran after him.

 

By the time the foxes had left the gulley and caught up to Judy, she was standing at the edge of a chasm, waving her camera around as she took in the scenery. On the other side was a dull grey wall that was concealing most of the structure they had seen earlier. The stonework on the wall appeared to have been expertly crafted, sporting various symbols and carvings, but the ravages of time had worn them down to the point where Nick couldn't even tell what most of them were supposed to be. There was one symbol, however, that was more common than the others, some of those carvings were still intact enough to see that they depicted some sort of flower.

 

“Well this looks promising,” Nick remarked, eyeing their newfound discovery, “now how do we get over there?”

 

"It looks like there's a set of doors on the other side," Judy pointed to an arch on the wall with some heavy looking doors. "I'm betting there's some sort of bridge across."

 

"More like  _was_ ," Finnick pointed to bits of stone rubble that looked like it had fallen into the chasm below. It was in pieces and decayed, but it still resembled the cracked remains of a bridge. "Probably collapsed into the chasm ages ago."

 

"Okay, so guess we can't just walk across," Nick pondered, "Not like it's ever that simple in these types of jobs.

 

“Does that mean you have a plan?” Judy’s question drew Nick's attention, he briefly glanced in her direction to see that her Pandasonic was pointed at him before he turned his attention back to the chasm. A large branch hanging overhead caught his eye, it looked like it might be sturdy enough to support his weight.

 

“Of course I have a plan,” Nick turned back to shoot the camera a toothy smile, "I always have a plan."

 

"No you don't," Nick's smile changed to a frown at Finnick's interruption.

 

"Come on, Gramps! You know I've always got a plan up my sleeve."

 

"Improvising is not a plan, Kid."

 

"Whatever, I have an actual plan this time," the red fox grabbed a rope with an attached grappling hook from his belt. “Now watch as my totally awesome plan gets us across this chasm and one step closer to that payday you won't shut up about." He looked over at Judy, flashing another cocky grin at her camera, "Ready to see how it's done, Fluff?"

 

"The viewers and I will be waiting in anticipation!" Nick had the vague suspicion that she was mocking him.

  

“Perfect,” he loosely gripped the rope, spinning the hook in place several times before throwing it. The hook sailed through the air towards its target and struck dead on, a throw that would have been quite impressive if not for the fact he had been trying wrap the hook around the branch. Instead, Nick watched with mild embarrassment as it bounced off and fell into the chasm below, being left to dangle by the rope gripped in his paws.

 

“Nice...” the unimpressed tone in the bunny's voice caused Nicks ears to twitch as he fought the instinctual urge to flatten them against his skull. Despite what his instincts were telling him, he seriously doubted that it would  _actually_ make him small enough to escape her notice. It was times like this he was glad his fur was so red though, it did a pretty good job of hiding his embarrassment.

 

 _Still doesn't change the fact you made a complete fool of yourself..._  

 

“That...was on purpose…” Nick stammered, trying in vain to salvage his ego, “I….just wanted to show you what _not_ to do first!”

 

“Of course,” the rabbit said in an annoyingly unconvinced tone, the smug look she was shooting the fox made it clear how thoroughly he had botched his attempt at showing off. The unimpressed look Finnick was flashing him definitely didn't help matters either.

 

“Now let me show you how to do it properly,” he continued, trying desperately to push down the embarrassment he was feeling. He pulled the hook back up and threw it a second time. Luck was on his side this time as the hook sailed over the branch, wrapping around it several times before locking in place. “See? Nothing to it.”

 

“Hey Kid, if you’re finished embarrassing yourself in front of the bunny, how about we get going?” Finnick deadpanned.

 

Nick rolled his eyes at the smaller fox, “Yeah, yeah! I’m on it.” He tugged on the rope a few times to make certain it wouldn’t break before leaping forward. He felt the air rush through his fur as he swung in an ark, loosening his grip on the rope just before reaching the peak of his swing and using the gained momentum to carry himself the rest of the way to the other side.

 

As he landed, a sharp pain shot up through his footpads and into his legs as he hit the surface harder than anticipated. He let out a pained grunt as he stumbled over, but still managed to catch himself as he landed on all four paws.

 

“Are you alright?” the rabbit called out, her voice laced with concern.

 

“Yeah…” Nick muttered in a pained tone as he pulled himself back up onto his feet, “didn’t quite stick the landing...”

 

“Way to fumble the rope, Kid.”

 

“What?” Nick turned and saw that the rope was now dangling in the middle of the chasm out of the reach of all three of them. _Great…_  he thought to himself, _must’ve slipped out of my paw while I was stumbling_. He knew the rope was strong enough to support his weight if he was just swinging, but he never bothered to check if it would support him if he tried jumping to grab it.

 

“Okay, so jumping back to grab the rope would be too risky, stay there and I’ll see if I can find a way to make a path across.” Nick turned to the wall and started piecing together a plan, “These ruins are pretty old, maybe I could find a pillar large enough to-”

 

The fox was interrupted as he heard the tapping of footpads as the grey bunny jumped, he turned around to the sight of her swinging across the chasm and landing next to him with the rope in her paws.

 

“Oh…that works too...I guess....”

 

Judy had a look on her face that was somewhere between giddy and smug. “Not bad, huh?”

 

Nick tilted his paw from side to side in an unimpressed gesture, “Eh, it was sloppy.”

 

“Sloppy, huh?” the doe challenged, “What does that say about the _big time treasure hunting_ _fox_ who hurt himself trying to get over?”

 

To his immense frustration, Nick stood there for what felt like entirely too long trying and failing to come up with a snappy comeback. “Just give me the damn rope,” he finally conceded, grabbing it out of the rabbit's paws. This was not his day, he certainly wasn’t expecting to be shown up by a reporter and a bunny of all things.

 

 _And now you’re underestimating the bunny again_ , Nick silently chastised himself. _How the hell are you not dead yet Wilde?_

 

“If you two are done flirting, maybe you can toss me the rope now?” Finnick yelled from across the chasm, his arms folded and a look on his face that was a mix of irritated and impatient.

 

“Alright Gramps, here it comes.” Nick threw the loose end of the rope back across the chasm to Finnick. “You sure you don’t want me to find you another way across?”

 

“Don’t coddle me, Kid, I ain’t dead yet,” the diminutive fox growled as he grabbed the rope before swinging across to the other side. The small fox sailed through the air and landed on the other side, the rope still held firmly in his paws.

 

“Nicely done!” Judy clapped excitedly.

 

That was enough to lift the grumpy mammal's mood, a smile creeping onto his muzzle. “Ha! Still got it!” he boasted as he tugged the hook and rope loose from the branch before tossing it over to Nick.

  
Nick proceeded to wrap up the hook and rope and reattach it to his belt. “Yup, you still got it old timer.”

 

The three of them turned their attention to the set of doors in the archway blocking access to the rest of the ruins. Like the wall, there were patterns carved into the wood, but they had become too faded to make out any of the details.

 

Nick scratched his head as he examined the door, “Well this looks like the way in, but I don’t see any way to get it open from this side.”

 

“I’m guessing they didn’t want just anybody wandering in there,” Judy speculated as she walked up to the door, filming it with her Pandasonic. “This wood looks pretty rotten, maybe we could just force the doors open if we pushed?”

 

“Worth a shot,” Nick came up to the door, pressing his weight against it and pushing while Judy followed suit. “Hey Gramps, mind lending us a paw here?”

 

“Sure thing, Kid,” Finnick started pushing against the door.

 

The three of them grunted in exertion as they shoved with all their might. The wood creaked and groaned under the pressure, but despite their efforts, it wouldn't budge. 

 

Realizing the fruitlessness of this plan, Finnick stepped away from the door, rubbing at his sore arm. “No way we’re moving that thing.”

 

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Nick agreed as he and Judy took a step back, looking the door up and down. “Whoever these guys were, they certainly built their stuff to last.” He looked past the arch to the wall itself.

 

_Hmm, back in its heyday, this probably would've been too smooth to climb, but now…_

 

“You know, this wall is pretty worn down, I might be able to climb to the top,” the wear and tear had caused a number of imperfections such as cracks, holes, and small ledges to form that could probably act as decent pawholds for an experienced treasure hunter like himself. “I could drop down into the temple grounds and see if there’s a way to get that door open from the other side.”

 

Judy craned her neck up to look at the wall. Judging from the twitching of her nose, Nick guessed she saw such a task as more than a little daunting. “Really? You think you can climb that?”

 

“I’m a treasure hunter Carrots, this sort of thing is pretty much half the job.”

 

As Nick moved to start climbing the wall, the clicking of a lighter caused his ears to flick, followed by his nose twitching as it was suddenly assaulted by the smell of smoke. He already knew what it was, but he looked over at the source anyways,  Finnick leaning against the wall with a lit cigar in his paw.

 

“Now? Seriously?”

 

Finnick shrugged, “Not like we’re going anywhere until you figure out how to get past those doors. Sure as hell beats standing around doing nothing.”

 

“Fair enough,” Nick turned back to the wall, cracking his paws in anticipation. “Well, Carrots, you have fun down here basking in Gramps and his cancer-inducing glory, I’ve got some climbing to do.”

 

The fox then started his climb, grasping at any holes and ledges large enough to support him as he pulled himself further up the wall.

 

“Are you sure this is safe?” a nervous sounding Judy called up to him. 

 

“Nope!”

 

It was tiring work, but Nick had spent so much time jumping around old ruins and cliffs that it had become second nature to him at this point. He moved quickly at first, practically gliding from one pawhold to the next, but the further up the wall he went, the more difficult it became as decent spots became harder to reach and he found himself frequently having to reach dangerously far out or even make small jumps just make any progress. He hoped he wouldn’t have to be doing too much of this today, it was pretty physically demanding stuff and his muscles were already starting to ache. He finally came to a narrow ledge that jutted out along the wall perimeter. Pulling himself up on top of it, he started shimmying along, keeping his body as flat against the wall as possible as he looked for a decent pawhold and tried not to imagine what would happen if he slipped from such a great height.

 

_This seemed like such a good idea down there..._

 

Finally, he found a gash in the side of the wall large enough for him to firmly grasp that was only  _slightly_ out of his reach. He steadied himself, getting ready to jump up and grab for the pawhold. He took a deep breath and tried to leap only to end up experiencing a dropping sensation and the sound of splitting stone as the ledge gave out from under him.

 

“Oh, shit!”

 

As the ledge cracked and fell away, Nick instinctively unsheathed his claws, digging them into the wall just short of the gash. His claws scraped against the stone wall, assailing him with a harsh grating sound reminiscent of hooves against chalkboard like back when he was a kit still going to school. Shaking that thought loose, the vulpine quickly shot his left paw up as far as it would go and managed to successfully grab onto the ledge above while his other paw remained jammed into the wall by its claws. He let out an exasperated laugh, conflicted feelings of relief and panic racing through him as he heard pieces of the collapsing stone ledge smash against the surface below.

 

“Nick!” Judy shouted in alarm.

 

“Son of a bitch!” Finnick cursed as he dodged the falling debris, “You alright, Kid?”

 

Not willing to further test his luck, Nick wrenched his right paw free of the wall and reached up to grab onto the ledge with both paws. “I’m okay! Ha,ha...I’m alright...Think I kinda messed up my claws though, they don't tend to get along well with solid stone.” 

 

“Cheese and crackers Nick, you had us worried!” Judy called up in a relieved tone.

 

“Yeah, be more careful next time, Kid,” Finnick added. “You made me drop my cigar.”

 

Nick rolled his eyes at the desert fox’s comment, not that he’d be able to see it from all the way down there. “Glad to know you care, Gramps,” he pulled himself up the last few pawholds to the top of the wall. Finally stopping to take a look at his paws, he saw that several of his claws had been chipped away during the debacle. He would've preferred to have them in good condition in case of an emergency and he found himself needing to claw some asshole in the face, but then again, his claws wouldn't have done him any good if he had fallen several stories and splattered himself on the ground so he couldn't really complain.

 

“What do you see up there?” Finnick asked once he saw that his partner had reached the top.

 

From up on top of the wall, Nick had a much better view of the ruin in question which consisted of a raised structure reminiscent of a black ziggurat. There was a terrace level raised above the surface that contained the only visible entrance, all the others seeming to have either collapsed or been blocked by rubble.  Like the wall, it was covered in worn looking carvings and symbols, and likewise, the flower symbol was the most common one.

 

“Remember that structure we saw from the gulley?,” Nick yelled back, “It looks like some sort of temple.”

 

“Think it’s what we’re looking for?” Judy asked.

 

“Could be, hold on, I’m gonna climb down and see if I can find a way to get you two inside.”

 

There were a number of bollard like structures on top of the wall that looked like suitable points to wrap his grappling hook around. After doing just that and making sure the rope was firmly attached, he climbed over the wall and started repelling his way down. His downward climb ended up being far less eventful as he quickly reached the bottom after several jumps without incident. "Huh, that was almost disappointing," he said to no one in particular.

 

_Enjoy it while you can Wilde, knowing your luck, this just means something worse will probably happen later._

 

“I made it to the other side,” he called out, pulling the rope loose and wrapping it up again once it hit the ground.

 

“Great, Kid!” Finnicks called back. “Think you can get those doors open?”

 

“Not sure yet…” Nick looked around for anything that could help him. He noticed a number of odd-looking wooden barrels that definitely didn't belong. "Some old barrels over here, definitely not local from the looks of 'em.”

 

“What's in them?” Judy inquired from the other side of the wall.

 

Nick stepped closer to one of the barrels. There wasn't much of a scent to it beyond some light notes of charcoal, so he pulled off one of the lids and looked inside. The black powder inside told him everything he needed to know. “They’re filled with gunpowder. We're definitely on the right track, then. I'm guessing  Francis and his crew brought them to blast through anything they couldn't open or get around.”

 

“Great! Use them to blow the doors open,” Finnick suggested.

 

Nick sighed and started pushing the closest barrel over to the doors. A strenuous task to say the least given that the barrels were at least a foot taller than him and probably two to three times his weight.  “Sure Gramps, I’ll just go ahead and start rolling some barrels at least twice my weight and chock full of centuries-old, super safe gunpowder," he mumbled to himself. "It’s fine, really, my back could use the workout and that stuff _probably_ won’t blow me to pieces or anything.”

 

“Hey, Kid! What’s taking so long, you throw out your back or something?”

 

Nick let out a frustrated sigh, “In case you didn’t know, Gramps, these barrels are pretty heavy, oh, and filled with _gunpowder! S_ o _sorry_   if I'm holding you up because I want to take my time and do this without bits of fox being scattered all over the temple grounds!"

 

“Well hurry it up already, we ain't got all day.”

 

Nick heard the sound of a slap followed by Judy's voice, but he couldn't make out what she was saying.

 

A few moments later he heard Finnick call out again in a more subdued voice, “Uh...I mean...take all the time you need, and be careful with those barrels.”

 

Nick smiled, he’d have to thank Judy for that later.

 

“All right, Gramps, but only because you asked so nicely.” Nick continued pushing the barrel until it was sitting next to the door. “All right got it in place, now stand back!”

 

Nick moved away from the door, gauging whether or not he’d be a safe distance from the blast once the barrel detonated.

 

 _Th_ _is should be safe_ , he thought to himself.

 

_Probably..._

 

_Maybe..._

 

_Okay, maybe I'll move a bit further back..._

 

He backed away from the barrel a few more steps, and then a second time, and then a third time.

 

_You know what? Maybe I should just go ahead and find something to hide behind..._

 

He eyed a collapsed pillar that was just perfect and made sure he was safely behind it. “You guys ready yet?”

 

“Uhhh, are we sure we want to do this Nick?” Judy asked. "This is supposed to be an archaeological expedition, right? Blowing up old ruins doesn't seem like the sort of thing archaeologists would do."

 

"Then I guess it's a good thing we're treasure hunters and not archaeologists, Fluff." Nick replied. "Besides, unless you and Gramps want to climb that wall yourselves, we don't really have any other options."

 

There was a long awkward pause before the rabbit responded, "Point taken..."

 

"Okay, listen, I'm getting tired of yelling at you guys from the other side of this wall, can you two hurry up so I can get on with this?"

 

“We're ready, Kid, just try not to blow us up!”

 

“No promises!” Nick reached for the pistol in his shoulder holster and flipped the safety off. It was a pretty good sign that he'd gotten this far before he had to use it, he tended to prefer the jobs when there weren't quite so many bullets flying around. He popped up over the column and took careful aim at the barrel. He exhaled deeply as he squeezed the trigger and let loose a bullet, it proved to be enough as it struck the barrel and ignited the gunpowder within.

 

The foxes ears instinctively went flat against his head in response to the resounding roar of the blast as the whole archway was consumed in a giant fireball. Bits of stone and wood debris shot in all directions as the explosive inferno rapidly expanded before dissipating into scattered flames and embers. Even as he ducked beneath the pillar, he still felt a blast of heat briefly wash over his fur before he was completely concealed behind cover. After waiting a moment, he raised his head and saw the smoke from the explosion gradually fade away, revealing an arch that was now lacking in big, heavy doors.

 

His gaze was drawn to two sets of large ears, a long set and a pointy set, bouncing around as they moved through the cleared archway.

 

“Nice work, Kid!” Finnick laughed, “It ain’t a real treasure hunt until we've gotten to blow some shit up!”

 

"Still seems pretty excessive," Judy mumbled under her breath, her ears drooping a bit with uncertainty.

 

Nick waved his paw dismissively in her direction, "You worry too much, Carrots, it was just a half rotten set of doors and a bit of stone, the temple itself wasn't even touched." 

 

"I dunno..." Judy's mood improved a bit, but she still didn't sound fully convinced.

 

Nick nodded to the structure behind them. "That's where our big find is gonna be, and once we have it, you'll be able to say you helped rewrite history!" He leaned forward and gave her an encouraging smile, "Sounds pretty good, no?"

 

That comment seemed to greatly improve her mood as she lifted her head and nodded vigorously, "Yeah! You're right! Uncovering long lost knowledge and helping to improve mammalkinds understanding of its own history? That's why I do this!" She jumped excitedly, pumping her fist into the air, "Come on, let's go!" The excited doe started running towards the temple only to stop and make an about-face. “Ooh, but first...” she gripped her camera in her paws, “Almost forgot to get a quick picture of the three of us celebrating our big find."

 

Before either of the foxes had a chance to say anything, Judy had already pulled them in and wrapped an arm around each of their necks. The camera was being held in an outstretched paw as she flipped it around to face them. On the side panel, it showed all three of them with Nick sporting a stunned look, Judy, an excited one, and Finnick, a scowl.

 

“Everybody smile and say cheese!”

 

Nick put on a cocky smirk but the annoyed scowl remained stuck on Finnicks muzzle. Noticing this, Nick nudged his head in Finnicks direction, “You heard the bunny, Gramps!”

 

“Come on, Kid, seriously?” Finnick objected.

 

“ _C'mon_ , say cheese!” the red fox insisted in a mocking tone.

 

The desert fox let out a frustrated sigh before finally capitulating. “Cheese...” he droned out half-heartedly, the irritated look still on his face even as the picture was taken.

 

Nick took a look at the captured image, chuckling at how the picture had managed to perfectly capture his partner's irritation which contrasted so nicely with Judy's energetic smile and his own cocky grin. “Quite the glamour shot, Fluff.”

 

“Oh, this one’s definitely a keeper!" Judy enthused as she took the camera in both paws and looked over the image.

 

“Yeah, yeah, if you two are done wasting time," Finnick growled. "I'd really like to get back to the whole treasure hunting thing."

 

Nick hadn't been paying attention earlier, being too focused on getting the door open, but it was only now that he and the others noticed just how many of those barrels were scattered throughout the temple grounds.

 

“That’s a lot of gunpowder…” Judy noted in astonishment.

 

“No kidding.” Finnick's ears twitched in thought. "Were they planning to blow the place sky high or something?"

 

“Maybe,” Nick pondered, "Wilde might've not wanted to leave anything behind for others to find..." 

 

"What, like a rival group or something?" Finnick speculated, trying to make sense of the situation.

 

"You don't get an empire as large as the one the Pine Isles had without making your fair share of enemies along the way," Nick pointed out. "Maybe some of them were even looking for the same thing as Sir Francis."

 

"If his plan was to keep others from finding this place, then why didn't they go through with it?" Judy wondered.

 

"And why leave all of the gunpowder behind?" Nick added. "If there was a change of plan, you'd figure they'd take it with them."

 

“Maybe a rival group took them out?" the reporter suggested. "Everybody already thought he had just retired and went into solitude at this point, so the expedition was clearly a secret. If something went wrong and the empire decided to bury the truth, it might explain why nobody ever heard about it."

 

Nick shook his head at the idea. “I doubt it, if the expedition was destroyed, there'd have been shipwrecks out in the bay, but we didn't see anything.”

 

"Well, either way, we ain't gonna figure it out by just standing around all day with our tails hanging in the wind." Finnick started making his way toward the temple entrance while the other two followed behind him.

 

As they approached the temple, they saw that the stairs leading up to the main entrance had collapsed, leaving the entrance out of their reach.

 

Judy perused the temple with her camera before turning to look at Nick. “Think you can find a way to climb up that?”

 

“Stonework is a lot smoother here than the wall, don't really have anything solid enough to grab on to.” As Nick eyed the wall, he noticed a sizeable chunk of stone that had fallen loose from the temple exterior and was sitting on the ledge above them. “Not that we need any, I have a better idea.”

 

“And what would that be?” Judy asked as Nick stepped up to the collapsed stairs and looked back at her.

 

“See that loose stone up there?” Judy looked up at the stone he was pointing to.  “It should be big enough for me to use as a step to climb up to the second level.”

 

Judy tilted her head in confusion, “But we can’t reach it.”

 

Nick sighed, “Well duh, I’m gonna boost you up to the ledge and then you can push it down to me.”

 

“Are you serious?” Judy asked in disbelief, “That thing looks pretty heavy, how exactly do you expect me to get it down?”

 

“Don’t be so dramatic, it’s not as heavy as it looks…probably...” When that failed to convince the bunny, a smug look crept onto his face as he decided to try a different approach. “Or is that too much for a _cute_ little bunny to handle?” A pretty risky move usually since bunnies really hated being called that. In this line of work, it wasn't uncommon for use of that word to result in somebody being shot, stabbed, or at the very least having a chair smashed over their head.

 

It still managed to do the trick though, the rabbit's nose started twitching in agitation as she shot the treasure hunter a dark glare. “I’ll show you who’s _cute_ ,” she muttered as she marched up to Nick.

 

“That’s more like it!” Nick bent his knees and cupped his paws together, silently hoping this wouldn't end with him getting kicked in the face again, it hurt enough the first time around and that was before he'd actually done anything to deserve it. Judy took a running start and stepped into his cupped paws, leaping forward as Nick thrust her upwards. Thankfully, the rabbit didn't kick him in the face as she was launched high into the air and landed on the ledge above.

 

“Nice jump, Carrots! Oh, and thanks for not kicking me in the face again.”

 

“Already kicked you once, just try not to tempt me,” Judy cautioned before disappearing out of sight. A few seconds later, Nick started to hear the sounds of grunting and stone scraping against stone.

 

The fox stepped back as he saw the stone moving and a pair of black tipped ears poking out from behind it. 

 

“Look…out…below,” Judy grunted between shoves with the last one causing the stone block to slide off the edge and land on the ground.

 

“Nice work,” Nick climbed up on top of the stone block and pulled himself over the ledge. “Alright Gramps, your turn.”

 

“Way ahead of you, Kid,” Finnick was already pulling himself on top of the stone as Nick bent over and reached for him. The small fox leaped up and his paw was engulfed by the red foxes larger one as he was pulled up on to the ledge.

 

Judy pumped her closed paw in triumph, “We made it!”

 

“Yes, we certainly have,” Nick looked to Judy on his left and Finnick on his right. “You guys ready?”

 

“I sure am,” the bunny nodded.

 

“About damn time,” the smaller fox grumbled.

 

Nick cocked a smile and flicked his tail in anticipation, “Well then, I think it's about time we finally got to see what it is our old buddy Francis found out here.”

 

 With that, the adventurers pressed forward into the darkness of the temple interior.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the second chapter done! I'd like to thank to LionKingAlex for letting me use some of his musician's names at the start. To add a bit of context to Finnick's Santo Hedeta story, Hedeta was a combination of the words mofeta, the Spanish word for skunk, and hedor, the Spanish noun for stink. Santo is also a Spanish word for holy and can refer to a holy relic or idol. I had a little fun combining events from Zootopia and Uncharted to make a neat little easter egg. In this case, the skunk butt rug nick sold to Mr. Big in Zootopia, and a point in Uncharted where Sully, the character I based this version of Finnick off of, bragging about how he sold a fake idol to Pablo Escobar. I added some more easter eggs throughout and will keep doing that, so it'll be fun to see if anybody can recognize them. 
> 
> Anyways, I'll be going on vacation for a couple of weeks, but I've already done a lot of work on the next chapter so the next update will probably take about the same amount of time to get done. I appreciate any input you guys might have and I'll try to respond quickly, but that all depends on how easy it'll be for me to access this account while I'm gone. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed it. Until next time, Sic Parvis Magna!


	3. Dust and Bones

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Get this! Did you know you could post notes at the beginning of the chapter as well? (Shut up, I'm new to this...) Anyways, I'm back from my trip and got my next chapter up and ready. Time to see whether all that bushwacking and jumping around old ruins lead our trio to anything of value or not!

“Sweet biscuits it’s dark, I can’t see a thing in here.”

  
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Fluff, I can see just fine.” Nick wasn’t looking, but he could imagine Judy’s nose twitching in agitation.

  
“Well _some_ of us don’t have night vision.”

 

“Enough messing around, Nick, just give her a damn flashlight already so we can get on with this,” Finnick growled.

 

“Fiiiine,” Nick sighed in jest before pulling out two flashlights, flicking one on and passing the other to Judy. Even with the flashlights now illuminating the area, all it managed to do was further highlight the decrepitude of the old ruins. The lingering musty scent and the dust covering almost every inch of the halls made it obvious that they were the first mammals to enter in a very long time. 

 

"Either of you see anything?" Nick asked as they continued further into the ruins.

 

"Just more barrels of gunpowder," Finnick grumbled, sweeping his own flashlight across a number of barrels stacked against the walls. "I'm starting to think that's all this damn place has."

 

“Well, let's just keep looking," Nick offered. "Still a lot of temple left to explore."

 

Finnick simply grunted non-committally. 

 

"Tell you what, Gramps. If we don't find anything, I'll let you vent your frustration by blowing up the temple, deal?"

 

"I'm seriously starting to consider blowing this damn thing up with you in it, Kid..."

 

"Oh I know you'd never do that, Gramps, you'd miss me."

 

"Like I'd miss a godsdamn hangover..."

 

“Guys, save it for later!" Judy called out, Nick and Finnick only now realizing she had wandered on ahead. "I think you're gonna want to come take a look at this!” 

 

As the two foxes approached, they saw the rabbits gaze and flashlight were focused on something lying on the ground. On closer inspection, it was revealed to be the skeletal remains of a mammal. Given the size and canid nature of the skeleton, Nick guessed it had either been a fox or a small wolf.

 

“Hmm, maybe this guy can tell us where the treasure is, eh Gramps?” Nick joked, nudging the small fox.

 

“Who do you think it was?” Judy pondered.

 

“One of the locals maybe?” Finnick speculated, the new lead seeming to have improved his mood slightly.

 

“Not unless the locals had access to steel armour and rapiers,” Nick noted, pointing out the armour the mammal was wearing and the weapon still grasped in its skeletal paw.

 

He bent down to take a closer look, noting the symbol of a lion and a dragon on the armour. “Hmmm, that's the symbol of House Leodor…”

 

He looked over the sword and armour, trying to discern any useful details. They were both pretty old, decayed and covered in dust, but they were still intact enough for him to determine their approximate age. “Look to be...16th century…” he continued, piecing together a conclusion. “Looks like this poor bastard was one of the soldiers from Wilde’s expedition.”

 

“What happened to him?” Judy asked, a hint of shock in her voice.

 

“I have no idea, but I doubt he just keeled over from a heart attack,” Finnick remarked.

 

The rabbit bent down further and placed her paws on the dead mammal's side, “It looks like he was...fighting,” she turned the body over, exposing a dent in the armour on the back with something sticking out of it. Pulling it out, she found a small notched stick with a metal tip.

 

Nick took bent down next to Judy to take a look at it, “Hmm, steel tip…doesn't look like a type of arrow the natives around here would've used.”

 

“It looks like a crossbow bolt,” the doe started to realize, “but that would mean...”

 

“That Sir Francis’ expedition wasn’t the only group out here,” Nick finished. “Looks like Wilde had some competition, and I'm betting we'll find more answers up ahead.”

 

As they continued down the halls, they came to a much larger open room with a pedestal in the center that was surrounded by skeletal remains. These all wore steel armour and the positioning of their remains suggested that they had died fighting as well.

 

“Holy shit…” Finnick murmured.

 

“Wow…” Judy gasped in shocked awe.

 

“Must’ve been a pretty nasty fight,” Nick looked the skeletons over. Some of them wore similar gear to the soldier they had found earlier, but others wore a distinctly different set.

 

“I’d venture a guess that these were our mystery rivals,” Nick bent down next to the skeletal remains of one of the mystery mammals, a bovine soldier with a hefty looking axe clutched in his hoof and a sword sticking out of what used to be his chest. “Now who are you guys?”

 

While the chest armour he wore was too badly damaged to identify the crest adorning it, the same could not be said for the soldier's helmet. Picking it up, he saw a crest consisting of pair of horns jutting out of a crown with a sword in the background pointing downwards. “Judging from this crest and all the carnage, I’d wager that Wilde and his pals ran afoul of the Blackhorn Empire.”

 

“So…what, Sir Francis comes looking for treasure, only to get jumped by the Blackhorns who take it for themselves?” Finnick asked, pulling the helmet out of Nick's paws to get a better look.

 

Nick stroked his muzzle, deep in thought. Finnick’s theory seemed like a reasonable one, but something about it didn’t sit right with the red fox.

 

“I don’t think so…” he finally said, “the Blackhorns probably would’ve torched all of Wilde’s ships if they caught them, but we didn’t see any shipwrecks out in the bay.” He tilted his head in concentration for another moment before nodding as he drew a conclusion. “I think it's more likely that Wilde’s expedition bolted during the fight and the Blackhorns looted the place afterwards.”

 

“So the trails gone cold...son of a bitch...” Finnick growled in frustration as he threw the helmet across the room, a loud clanging resounding through the halls as it bounced off the stone floor.

 

“Woah, easy there Gramps,” Nick raised his paws in alarm. “We’re not done here yet, there still might be something of value.”

 

“Like what, Kid?!?!”, Finnick yelled in frustration. “They picked the place clean, there’s nothing left but a buncha’ dust and bones. How the hell are we supposed to make a payday off of that?”

 

“Come on, Finn, we’ll make this work,” Nick tried to assure his partner. “We always do.”

 

“Right,” Finnick rolled his eyes, “like that time we went looking for that idol in Angka Binrei?”

 

“We found the idol, didn’t we?” Nick countered.

 

“Yeah, and then you got arrested right after,” Finnick reminded him, “I had to waste all our money bribing the warden to let your sorry tail go.”

 

“Well...yeah…” Nick cringed, he’d forgotten about that part. “But how was I supposed to know that guy who's boat we crashed had that much pull with the cops?”

 

"You mean the one _you_ crashed?"

 

Realizing this argument wasn't going anywhere, Nick tried a different approach. “Look, I get it, things have been rough, but I know when a job has potential, just trust me on this Gramps. I’ve got a good feeling about this one.”

 

Nick could see the gears grinding in the smaller fox’s head. He couldn’t blame his partner for having doubts, money had been pretty tight and the last few jobs of theirs hadn’t exactly panned out well. Still, for all his complaining and grumbling, Finnick was always one to trust him when it counted. The treasure hunter never liked having to play the trust card against his partner, but he really did have a good feeling about this job, and backing out at this point wasn't exactly an option given the things he had to do just to find this place.

 

The small fox finally let out a frustrated sigh, “Alright, fine Kid, we’ll do it your way.”

 

Nick fought the urge to let out a sigh of relief as Finnick continued, “but what the hell do we do now? Cause I sure as shit don’t see any other way outta this room.”

 

Before Nick had a chance to answer, he heard a clicking noise coming from behind him. Both the foxes turned to see Judy standing on top of a pedestal that the skeletal remains of a wolf had been leaning against, her foot pressed down on a button they had missed.

 

The click was followed by the sound of ancient gears turning behind the walls and the sound of moving stone as a section of the wall at the back of the room rose up, revealing a hidden passageway.

 

“Uhhh...” Nick blinked in disbelief, “I guess we can just wait for Carrots to sort it out...”

 

“Whatever works I guess,” Finnick grinned triumphantly, his frustrations seemingly having melted away. He nodded at Judy as he passed her and entered the new opening, “Nice work bunny, you know you might just end up being better at this sort of thing than him.”

 

Nick stepped over to the pedestal, his gaze locked on Judy and the pedestal. “How did you know to do that?”

 

Judy leapt down to the ground, “His paw was lying on top of it,” she pointed to the skeletal remains of the wolf lying against the pedestal. “It looked like he was trying to activate something and then I saw that button so I just...pushed it.”

 

“No kidding…” Nick looked at the inconspicuous button before glancing back at Judy. “Good eye, Carrots, we might just make a treasure hunter out of you yet.”

 

Judy smiled at the compliment, a very slight blush appearing under her fur. “Thanks, but I think I’ll stick with reporting once we’re finished here.”

 

Nick shrugged, “Your loss, Fluff.”

 

“Hey, Kid!” Finnick’s gruff voice called out from the new opening. “I think you’ll want to come see this.”

 

As Nick and Judy followed Finnick's voice through the new passage, they were greeted by the sight of a hallway much larger than the previous one. Extinguished torches lined the hall on either side with strange murals carved into the stone above them.

 

Unlike everything else they had seen, these murals were in surprisingly good condition. One set depicted a massive city with stone spires that reached far into the clouds above, dwarfing the smaller buildings and houses beneath them. Another set of murals depicted the city from further away, sitting on an island in the ocean with smaller islands visible in the distance and the sun setting on the horizon. A final set depicted a wide variety of mammals of differing sizes and families, both prey and predator, living together in peaceful harmony within the city limits.

 

Judy gazed in awe at the murals, “These looking incredible…and so well preserved.” She approached one of them, filming it with her camera, “Nothing else we’ve seen so far has been this intact.” She turned to look back at Nick and Finnick, “This really is quite a find!”

 

Finnick eyed the murals, his large ears twitching as he considered their worth, “A shame they’re built into the walls, I bet they’d be worth a fortune if we could take them with us.”

 

“They look like they depict some kind of city,” Judy observed, looking over at Nick. “Maybe this temple was part of it?”

 

“I don’t think so,” Nick pointed to the set of murals showing the island chain, “the city looks like it’s on an island, and any near this coast would be too small to fit a city of that size. If this temple was ever part of any city, it would’ve been something further inland.”

 

He looked between the different murals furrowing his brow in concentration, “And these mammals, a lot of them aren't even native to the region. Whatever this mural is depicting, it's not anything nearby.”

 

“Then what is it?” Judy wondered. "I doubt they'd be hiding these murals behind a hidden passage unless there was a point to them."

 

“I’m not sure…” Nick paused, “a city somewhere else...maybe?” One particular city popped up in Nicks mind but he was quick to quash that thought. 

 

 _Forget it Wilde, that city is just a myth_ , the fox reasoned. _No good's gonna come from chasing old legends, even if it would be the find of the century..._

 

“Well we’re not gonna find any answers by just staring at the wall all day with our tails hanging in the breeze,” Finnick cut in, putting an end to Nick's internal debate. The desert fox began walking further down the hall, “Come on, let’s see what else there is.” He beckoned to the others. “Maybe we’ll actually find something that’ll make all that damn bushwacking worth it in the end.”

 

As they headed deeper into the temple, they saw the occasional dead soldier, but nothing on the level of the massacre in the pedestal room. Finally, they came to a wall with a mural on the front and two sets of chains with attached stone weights on each side. The mural was a detailed depiction of the same white flower they had been seeing outside of the temple.

 

 _There it is again, what is it with these guys and that flower?_  Nick wondered. _Is it some sort of symbol? A local plant maybe?_

 

He glanced over at Judy only to find her focused on filming the mural. “Carrots, you there?” he nudged her to get her attention.

 

“Hmm?” the rabbit murmured, still remaining focused on the mural.

 

“You’re just staring at the wall,” the fox explained. “What, you like the design or something?”

 

“Oh no, was just thinking that something seemed familiar about it.” Judy shook her head and lowered the camera before looking back at Nick, “Doesn't matter, anyways, you have any idea what to do next?”

 

“Yeah,” Nick approached the mural and brushed his paw over the stone, “this wall looks like it can move, I think it might be a door of some kind.” He pointed to the sets of chains on each side, “lifting these counterweights will probably do the trick. I’ll take the left side, you and Finn grab the right.”

 

“Alright,” Judy affirmed.

 

“On it,” Finnick added, both of them grabbing the chain on the right side.

 

Nick grabbed his chain and started pulling while Judy and Finnick followed suit on their side. Despite being designed to be operated by larger mammals, the three of them still managed to get the chains moving after some initial resistance. The clanking of metal and the grinding of stone echoed through the halls as the counterweights moved and the stone wall rose up to reveal another opening.

 

Nick was about to release the chain when he realized they had a problem. “Crap! Door’s open but it's gonna just fall again as soon as we let go of the counterweights.”

 

“We’ll hold the door, Kid,” Finnick grunted,  “see if you can find something to jam it with.”

 

“You guys sure?” It was hard enough holding the chain by himself, it was probably even worse for the other two.

 

“Just…hurry,” Judy urged as she struggled against the chain.

 

“Alright,” Nick quickly ducked under the door, looking around for anything he could jam it open with. He soon noticed an old chunk of stone close to the door that could work.

 

 _Maybe it was part of a statue at some point? Or possibly came loose from the wall?_ _Whatever,_   _doesn't matter, it's about to find new purpose as a door stopper._

 

“Any...day now...Kid…” Finnick forced out in a strained voice.

 

Nick quickly pushed the stone until it was right under the door.

 

“Alright, that should do it, let it go guys.”

 

Finnick and Judy both released the chain and the door slammed down hard on the stone with a loud crash. Several cracks formed from the impact but the stone remained intact.

 

"Should be good, come on Carrots, you first," Nick called as he waved her over.

 

“Is that safe?” Judy asked uncertainly.

 

“As safe as anything else around here,” Nick replied.

 

“That would be a no then…”

 

Despite her unease, Judy quickly ran under the door. As she did, a groaning sound could be heard as more cracks formed on the stone and it started to give under the weight of the door. Just as she cleared the door, the stone shattered, shards of rock flying in all directions as the door slammed down with a crashing thud and sealed them in.

 

“Whoa!” Nick jumped back in alarm. “That was a close one. You alright, Carrots?”

 

The rabbit looked a little rattled but otherwise unharmed. “I...I’m alright,” she said in a slightly shaken voice. She shook her head, starting to appear calmer and gave a nervous chuckle. “So....this sort of thing normal for treasure hunters? Almost getting crushed into paste like that?” a relieved smile forming on her face as she brushed bits of rock off of herself.

 

The fox’s muzzle broke into a small grin at the joke. “Not always, Fluff,” he teased, “sometimes it actually gets dangerous.”

 

“You two alright in there?” Finnick's muffled voice yelled through the door.

 

“We’re fine, Gramps,” Nick yelled back, “but I don’t see any way to open the door from this side.”

 

“Well, there’s no way I’ll be able to get it open on this side by myself,” Finnick confirmed. “What the hell do we do now?”

 

“You wait here,” Nick suggested. “Carrots and I will go on ahead and see if we can find anything.”

 

“Be careful, Kid,” Finnick’s muffled voice cautioned. “And keep an eye out for our treasure, don’t forget why we're here just 'cause the door's busted.”

 

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Gramps,” Nick smirked. “So what are you gonna do all by your lonesome?”

 

“Oh you know me,” Finnick answered, “I got all the company I need.”

 

“Let me guess, gonna smoke another cigar while we do all the work?” Nick rolled his eyes at Judy as he said it, knowing full well what the answer would be.

 

“What do you mean gonna?” Finnick shot back. “I already lit one up while we were talking.”

 

Nick looked at Judy and saw she was trying to stifle a giggle. He simply shrugged, “Just watch yourself around the gunpowder. I’d hate to come back only to find you’ve gone and blown yourself up.”

 

“Ha! I wouldn’t give you the satisfaction!” Finnick countered.

 

“Have fun, Gramps!” Nick casually waved towards the door, knowing Finnick would respond with his own unseen wave.

 

He started walking down the hall again, Judy following close behind. Glancing out the corner of his eye, he saw that the rabbit was eyeing him in a thoughtful manner.

 

“You two seem pretty close,” she finally said.

 

“Oh ya, Gramps and I go way back,” Nick nodded. “Probably wouldn’t be a treasure hunter if it weren’t for him, he taught me most of what I know. Not as big on the history part of treasure hunting though. For him, it's more about how valuable the finds are.”

 

"So, he's only in this for the money then?"

 

"It's a bit more complicated than that...but suffice to say, he's more interested in how much a find's worth than its impact on history ." 

 

"I see..." Judy said, the tone in her voice making it clear she wanted to know more.

 

"Anyways..." Nick said after a pause, deciding to bury the topic. "Let's see what was so important that they felt the need to hide it behind a bunch of secret doors."

 

The two of them continued down the darkened hallway, heading deeper into the temple. They soon found themselves in the largest chamber so far. A circular room with an opening in the center that allowed sunlight to shine through.

 

“Do you think we can use that opening in the roof to climb out?” Judy asked.

 

“Don't think so,” Nick answered, looking at the wall leading up to the exit. “Too high up and no good pawholds to grab on to. Besides, we're looking for the secrets hidden in this temple, right? Makes trying to climb out kinda counter-productive.”

 

"Okay fine, first we find whatever they hid in here,  _then_ we try to find a way out.

 

They looked around the room and noticed a circular door on the opposite side of the chamber. They also saw a series of eight statues, all of them resembled primal mammals standing on all fours. The statues were arranged in a circular pattern around the room and consisted of a fox, a zebra, a wolf, a weasel, a lion, a mouse, a rabbit, and a sheep in clockwise order.

 

Nick let out an impressed whistle, “Nice statues, these guys must’ve really loved their stonework.”

 

He started stroking the ring around his neck as he focused on the statues, "More mammals that aren't native to the region, I'm starting to think whoever made this temple wasn't from around here..."

 

“What do you think they were for?” Judy asked as she went from statue to statue, filming each of them with her camera.

 

Nick glanced at the circular door and then back to the statues, trying to figure out if there was a connection.

 

“It’s a test,” he concluded.

 

“A test?”

 

“Yup, prove your worth to get the treasure, pretty common shtick in the business.” Nick walked up to the statue of the fox and knocked on it with his paw. “It usually boils down to solving an ancient puzzle of some kind.”

 

“Wait, you’re saying ancient mammals would just hide all their treasures and secrets behind elaborate puzzle devices?” Judy asked in disbelief.

 

“Quite frequently, Carrots, puzzle mechanism design was a pretty lucrative industry in ancient times.” Nick looked at the statues and noticed that all of them had handles sticking out. He started pushing on it and found that they made the statues rotate. “Well, these statues can move, I'm guessing we need to make each of them face a certain direction.”

 

“But which way do they go? I count eight statues Nick, that’s a lot of possibilities...”

 

She was right, there were way too many possible combinations for them to just guess. As Nick started stroking his ring again, he couldn’t shake a thought from his head that had gradually taken root since they first set foot in the chamber.

 

“These statues look familiar…”

 

Judy turned to him, a curious look in her eye. “You’ve seen these before?”

 

“Maybe, let me see if Sir Francis made some notes about them.” Nick grabbed the old journal from his pack and flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. “Here we go, eight mammals, same species as the statues here. Wilde must’ve figured out what to do with them.”

 

“Does it tell us how to use them?” Judy was looking closely at the fox statue, poking and prodding as if it would provoke some sort of reaction.

 

“Not directly, no.”

 

The journal had drawings of the same eight mammals displayed on the statues, but what really stood out for Nick was a written note in the corner.

 

“From conflict, comes balance. From nature, comes order.”

 

“Sounds like a riddle,” Judy began tapping her foot as she mulled over the phrase. "Does it have something to do with the statues?"

 

“Probably,” Nick observed, looking back up at the statues again. “Wilde wouldn't just write the answer for any idiot to find, but he _would_ write down something that only he or somebody smart enough would be able to figure out.

 

Nick looked back down at the journal, "Now we just need just need to figure out what that phrase has to do with those statues...”

 

He motioned Judy over and the two proceeded to pore over every detail in the room and Wilde’s journal in search of anything that could help them figure out the answer to the puzzle.

 

“Balance from conflict…order from nature,” Nick slowly repeated, rolling his tongue over every word as he spoke. “What does it mean?”

 

“Predation?”

 

Nick’s ears flicked in surprise at the sudden suggestion, “Excuse me?”

 

“Predator and prey, it's one of the oldest conflicts in history, and many theorists believe predators acted as a form of population control for prey during the savage and primal ages." Judy proposed. “Maybe it has something to do with that?”

 

Nick looked at the pictures in the journal again, “Four predators...four prey…” he mouthed the riddle a second time as he contemplated the rabbit's suggestion.  “Maybe we have to make the prey and predator statues face each other?”

 

“Hey, there’s an idea! Let’s try different combinations and see if that does something!” Judy excitedly suggested. Eager to test out the theory, she ran to the closest statue.

 

Nick raised his paw to stop the bunny, “Whoa! Easy there Carrots, that’s just a guess. We're gonna want to be a  _bit_ more certain than that before we start messing around with centuries-old statues.”

 

“It’s just an old puzzle mechanism,” Judy justified. “What’s the worst that could happen?”

 

“Well if we’re lucky, nothing.”

 

The rabbit froze at that answer, “What does _that_ mean?”

 

“I mean these things usually treat those that get the wrong answer as intruders, so if we screw it up, there might be some sort of response,” Nick said. “Or if we’re lucky, it doesn’t do anything and we just look like idiots.”

 

“And if we’re less lucky than that?” Judy asked, caution lacing her voice.

 

“Booby traps,” Nick stated.

 

“Booby traps?”

 

“Yup, collapsing ceilings and floors, flying darts, spikes, giant boulders, hell, I even heard about some rhino triggering one that sprayed acid once, idiot thought he could just smash through the wall and grab the treasure on the other side.” He then tapped a claw against the journal in his paws, making sure he had the rabbits attention as he did.

 

“So yeah, we’re gonna want to be certain we've got this right before we start messing around with those statues.”

 

“Point taken,” Judy gulped. “Maybe we should take a look at those notes again…” she motioned for Nick to lower the journal down to her eye level.

 

After some more time was spent poring over the notes, Nick began to notice an interesting detail in the illustrations.

 

“Hey Carrots, do you see anything in particular that stands out about these drawings?”

 

Judy took the journal in her paw and looked at them, “Other than what we already talked about? No, nothing.”

 

“No?” Nick paused in thought before speaking up. “You’ve got family, right?”

 

A confused look crossed the rabbit's face, “Uhh...yeah?” She hesitantly responded, caught off guard by the question.

 

"Farmgirl, right? Guessing your family is pretty large?"

 

"How did you-"

 

"I'd say lucky guess, but really, it's a pretty common background for bunnies in this line of work. You know, that one kit desperate to escape the dull farmer's life, goes off in search of adventure. That sounding about right, Fluff?"

 

"Not exactly..." Judy mumbled quietly. "And my family's not _that_ big, only 275 siblings." There was an awkward silence as the fox simply stared at her in amusement, "So...uhh...what's your point?"

 

“I'm guessing a lot of them are a lot less forward thinking than you,” Nick continued. “Did any of them tell you to stay away from a certain type of mammal, like, say, oh I don't know, a fox?”

 

Judy looked even more confused now and slightly alarmed, “What are you getting at?”

 

“Easy, Fluff, I'm a treasure hunter. I don't care about any prejudices you and your family may or may not have," Nick placated.

 

"Frankly, specism is kinda pointless in this line of work anyways, given the disproportionally large amount of shady characters in treasure hunting, just about any mammal can be as shady and untrustworthy as a 'fox',” he continued. “I promise this question is relevant to what we're doing here, I wouldn't be asking otherwise. ”

 

Judy huffed in frustration, “Okay, fine! Yes, some of them told me to stay away from foxes.”

 

“And why do you suppose that is?” Nick quizzed. 

 

“My family isn't exactly the best at letting go of old rivalries and suspicions, especially where foxes are concerned given how they're...." Judy's ears stiffened and her eyes opened wide at the sudden realization of where Nick had been going with this line of questioning, "...natural enemies!"

 

Nick clapped his paws together, “Exactly! Foxes and rabbits are natural enemies."

 

He then held the journal towards Judy, pointing a clawed digit at the drawings. "Take another look at the fox and rabbit, what are they doing?"

 

Judy furrowed her brow as she looked at the drawings. Her ears managed to somehow stiffen even more once she realized what Nick was hinting at, “They’re staring at each other!”

 

“Bingo!” Nick exclaimed. “And check the others out, the sheep and wolf, the lion and zebra, the weasel and the mouse, each of those pairs are staring at each other.”

 

“That’s what the riddle meant,” Judy pieced together, “the conflict leading to balance and nature leading to order, it was talking about the conflict between natural enemies!”

 

Nick nodded at the rabbit before pointing to the circle of statues. “We point each of the statues at their respective natural enemy, and I bet that’ll open the way to whatever this temple’s hiding.” Nick approached the fox statue and beckoned the rabbit over, “Come on, help me push this.”

 

“Wait!” Judy grabbed Nick’s arm before he could start. “Are we sure we got this right? I don’t want to end up getting impaled on a bunch of spikes or sprayed with acid or something because we got caught up on the wrong clue.”

 

“Nothing is certain in treasure hunting, Fluff,” Nick placed his paw on Judy’s shoulder and gave her a confident smirk, “but then that’s part of the fun. Besides, not like we have any better ideas.”

 

Judy pondered for a second before nodding at Nick, “Alright, let’s do it!”

 

“And here we go!” The two proceeded to move each of the statues into their proper position. Once they finished, they found themselves standing in the center of the circle, waiting in anticipation.

 

“Did that do it?” Judy asked, her foot tapping nervously.

 

“Guess we’re about to find out,” Nick answered, trying not to imagine spikes coming out of the floor and impaling both him and the rabbit. Images of future explorers finding their remains conjured in his mind, putting them on display in a museum as the dumb bunny and even dumber fox who couldn’t solve a simple riddle. It wasn't exactly the kind of legacy he’d like to leave behind, if possible.

 

Soon they started to hear the sound of something clicking into place followed by the rumbling of what was probably ancient stone gears. The grinding suddenly became much louder as the circular door at the back of the room slowly started to roll out of the way.

 

“It’s working!” Judy rejoiced.

 

“Yup, looks like we did it,” Nick agreed.

 

As soon as he said that the stone door stopped moving, stuck in place.

 

“...Or not…”

 

Whatever mechanism was responsible for opening the door seemed to have jammed, leaving only a small opening.

 

“No way! I'm too keyed up now to let some busted door stop me.” Nick, got down on all fours and started to squeeze his way through the gap between the door and the wall. It was a tight fit but he was able to gradually force his way through.

 

“Almost...there,” Nick grunted as he pulled himself through the opening, bit by bit. He was up to his waist when he ran into a problem.

 

“Uh oh...”

 

“What’s wrong?”

 

Nick didn’t want to admit it, if he was by himself, this could have been deadly. With the bunny here though, it was even worse, it was embarrassing.

 

“I’m stuck…”

 

“Oh really?” he could hear the smugness in the rabbit’s voice and he hated it. “Do you need some help?”

 

“Nah, I totally got it!” Nick tried to answer cooly, straining to wedge himself free as he spoke. “Just...need...a minute.” There was no way the rabbit wasn't aware of how embarrassed he was, red fur or not.

 

_If a spike trap came through the floor and impaled me right now, I think I’d be okay with that..._

 

“Are you sure?” she asked. “I mean you _are_ a professional treasure hunter who probably doesn't need help, but if you're stuck…”

 

“It’s alright, I’m fine, really,” Nick said in a tone that despite his best efforts, made it abundantly clear that no, in fact, he wasn’t fine. “Although, if you could just...push on the door a bit,” he tried to suggest nonchalantly, “that might...you know...help a bit...if you want...”

 

After a brief pause, he heard the bunny’s exertions as she started pushing against the door. It didn’t move much, but it was enough to give him that extra bit of space to free himself and crawl through to the other side.

 

Judy followed behind him right afterwards, squeezing through the gap with far less trouble. “Glad to be out of that _tight_ situation, eh Nick?” she smirked.

 

“Ha ha...that’s funny...” Nick deadpanned, before turning around and walking down the hallway. He beckoned her to follow with a flippant wave of his paw, “This way Lisa Lambanelli.”

 

Judy coughed awkwardly before jogging to catch up with Nick. “So...any idea what this place is?”

 

“No clue,” Nick answered, relieved the bunny had been merciful enough to steer the topic away from his moment of shame, “but if mammals were willing to put it behind a bunch of puzzles and secret doors, then it’s gotta be something important .”

 

As they entered a small room at the end of the hall, they heard the sound of grinding stone as the floor split open in front of them and a circular pedestal rose up from the gap. There were many images carved into the surface of the pedestal, the most immediately apparent being a map in the center surrounded by a border consisting of the same flower carvings that they had been seeing throughout the ruins.

 

Judy was staring at the flower carvings, stroking her chin in thought, “You know...I think I’ve seen these somewhere befo-” she was interrupted by Nick as he gently placed a paw on her shoulder and moved her aside.

 

“You mind holding that thought for a second, Fluff?” he took a closer look at the map on the pedestal. It depicted a chain of islands in the middle of the ocean with a city depicted on the largest one. “Looks like the location of some sort of city.”

 

“Probably the same one from that mural earlier.” Judy pointed to a series of strange symbols at the bottom of the map. “What about these?”

 

“I’m not sure...some sort of coordinates, maybe?”

 

“Think you can decipher them?”

 

“Without knowing the language? Sorry, Carrots, no can do.” He then noticed some faded markings right next to the symbols. “Although...I think dear old Sir Francis may have gone ahead and done that for us.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“This,” he pointed out the markings on the stone map. “It’s not part of the carvings, looks like it was added on afterwards.”

 

Judy’s ears shot up in excitement as she focused on the markings with her camera. After looking at it briefly, her ears sunk back down a bit, “I can’t make out what those markings say, they're too faded. It looks like somebody tried to rub them off.”

 

“That would probably have been Wilde, guessing he had enough time to cover his tracks a bit, hoping his new Blackhorn friends would miss what he wrote,” Nick speculated. “Luckily, I have a way to fix that.” He pulled out a sheet of paper and a pencil, placing the paper on top of the markings.

 

He saw Judy looking at him in confusion and shot her a cocky smirk in response. “Old treasure hunting trick, should be able to show us whatever was written there. As you said, I am a professional treasure hunter, after all.” He rubbed the pencil against the paper, the raised surface of the markings causing a message to form on the paper.  “And voila!”

 

On the paper was a series of latitude and longitude bearings,  _33° S and 60° E._

 

Judy bounced in excitement at what she saw. “They _were_ coordinates. Nice job, Nick!”

 

"All in a days work, Fluff."

 

He proceeded to write the coordinates down in his journal as well as a rough drawing of the island chain on the map with the city's location circled.

 

“Not the most precise coordinates, probably was the best guess Wilde could come up with given he had to translate them, but it should be good enough to find those islands.”

 

He pulled out a map of his own, marking the indicated area. “There! Whatever he was looking for, I bet that's where we'll find it,” Nick tapped the point on the map with his marker. “And I’m willing to bet we'll find the islands and that city out there.”

 

Judy leaned over to look at the map, “Those islands would be in the middle of the Dakashi Ocean, why would some temple on the mainland lead us all the way out there?”

 

“I’m not sure...wait a minute,” Nick noticed another marking on the map. “There’s more to this message,” he took a second rubbing, making sure he caught the rest of his ancestors markings. The new rubbing only contained a single word, one that made his jaw drop in disbelief: _Henosia_.

 

Judy noticed the shocked look on the fox’s muzzle, “Henosia? Does that mean something to you?”

 

“Henosia…it’s real…” Nick muttered. “Holy crap…”

 

“Hello, Earth to Nick?” Judy poked the treasure hunter, snapping him out of his shocked state.

 

“Uhh...nothing,” Nick shook his head, “Well not _nothing_ , definitely something, but I’ll tell you later.” He turned around and started heading to the exit, leaving behind a very surprised Judy who had to hurry to catch up. “For now, we need to find a way out of here. It might take a while to explain, just know that we’re onto something big.”

 

“Big?” she asked in confusion.

 

“Really big.”

 

“How _big_ exactly?”

 

“Forget find of the decade Fluff, if this is real, we’ll have made the find of the damn century!” Nick couldn’t contain his excitement, his tail twitching back and forth as they walked.

 

“Really?” Judy excitedly asked, having caught up beside Nick.

 

“I told you you’d have your big find.” Nick turned to Judy and gave her a completely genuine smile. For the first time in what seemed like ages, he had finally gotten his break, all of his hard work was about to pay off. “Now let’s go find Gramps and figure out how to get out of here.”

 

As they headed back to the circular door, they began to hear the sound of chains moving and the grinding of moving stone. Nick and Judy’s ears both perked at the noise.

 

“The door!” Judy exclaimed.

 

“Gramps found a way to get it open,” Nick started running towards the opening. “I knew I kept him around for a reason!”

 

“Hey Nick, slow down!”

 

“No time to slow down, Carrots, we’ve got history to make!” As he reached the circular door he waved back to Judy, “Come on! The sooner we get out of here, the sooner I can tell you what’s up!”

 

He turned and began forcing his way through the gap in the circular door, not struggling with it nearly as much as he did the last time.

 

“Hey, Gramps, nice job getting that door open!” Nick yelled as he made his way through the gap.

 

“How the hell did you-”

 

He found himself cut off as he looked up and noticed the barrels of several assault rifles pointed right at his face. Looking past them, he saw they were being held by two springboks and a spotted hyena decked out in combat fatigues and tactical vests, all sporting very unfriendly looks on their muzzles.

 

“Ah crap, you’re not Gramps...”

 

The next thing Nick knew, he felt a hoof grasp his neck and pull him to his feet.

 

“Thanks, but you really didn’t need to-” he was cut off as he felt another hoof reach into his holster and take his weapon.

 

“Sure, you can borrow that I guess,” he was interrupted again by the sound of an assault rifle round being chambered.

 

“Okay, I’ll just shut up now…” he finished, raising his paws above his head.

 

“Ey, girl!” the hyena called out to Judy in a distinctly Southern Savannah accent. “We know you’re in there, come out with your paws up before we splatter your boyfriend's brains all over the walls.” Nick felt the barrel of a gun poking the back of his head to emphasize the point.

 

“Okay, I’m coming out! Just don’t shoot!” Judy began crawling through to the other side, “I just want to clarify that he’s not my boyfriend or anything, we’re just working together and- Hey! Ow! Ow! Ow! Watch the ears!”

 

The hyena, apparently thinking she was taking too long, had decided to speed things up by pulling her out by her ears. As soon as she was clear of the gap in the door, the larger mammal dropped her on her feet.

 

Before Nick could say anything, one of springboks shoved him next to Judy.

 

“Start walking, both of you! We’re going outside!” the mammal ordered in a similar sounding accent. The rabbit and fox both obeyed and started walking towards the temple exit.

 

Judy glanced in Nicks direction, “Who are these guys?” she whispered, he couldn’t tell if she was asking rhetorically or if she actually thought he might know.

 

“Not anybody I know,” Nick hesitantly whispered back, “...I think…”

 

“You think?!?!” the doe whispered more loudly than she probably intended.

 

“I deal with a lot of unsavoury types in my line of work, Carrots, but I've never crossed paths with these guys before,” Nick shrugged. “Although...they might be working for somebody I know…”

 

“Well, who do you think it could be?” Judy asked.

 

“Shut up! Both of you!” the hyena yelled, the barrels of the guns poking both of them hard in the back.

 

“Keep moving and stay quiet! We bliksem the next one of ya that talks!”

 

Nick wasn’t sure what _bliksem_ meant, but he wasn’t really eager to find out either. Instead, he did the smart thing and remained quiet, glancing at Judy and merely giving her a shrugging gesture.

 

As they reached the second door, they saw a lion wearing similar gear to the others holding one of the chains in place.

 

"Great, you found something!" The lion called out as he saw the group approaching, "Can I let this thing go now? My blimming arms are getting tired..."

 

"Stay here and keep it open," the hyena ordered. "We'll probably be coming back after we've taken these two to see the bosses."

 

"Ag, fine..." the lion growled in frustration. "Just be quick about it."

 

As they walked through the first door in the pedestal room and back to the halls leading to the entrance, Nick couldn’t help but detect the oily scent of Finnick's cigar lingering in the air when they passed the barrels of gunpowder.

 

_Still smells pretty strong, guess that means he’s somewhere close by at least._

 

Before he could dwell on those thoughts any further, he was momentarily blinded by a bright light as he, Judy, and their armed captors stepped out of the temple and back outdoors. As his vision cleared, he saw that there were many more mammals in the temple courtyard, almost all of them armed and wearing gear similar to the three that had just marched them outside.

 

After dropping down from the broken stairway onto the ground, Nick’s attention was drawn to the only two mammals who stood out. The first was his partner Finnick, an irritated scowl on his muzzle as he stood in the middle of the courtyard with his paws in the air. The other one was a Zebra in mid-conversation with another hyena, the equine had a pistol strapped to a holster on his side and wore a plain dark grey t-shirt with a matching pair of jeans.

 

_Well, at least I can venture a guess at who hired these guys, now._

 

“Boss! We found these two in the temple,” their hyena captor barked out. “Found them crawling out from behind some door,” this caught the attention of the Zebra and the other hyena who ceased their conversation and turned to look at the new arrivals.

 

As the Zebra turned around Nick felt a surge of shock upon recognizing his face.

 

 _Crap_ , he thought to himself, _of course_ ** _he’d_** _be the one to show up here..._

 

The Zebra took a few steps towards them, an amused look on his muzzle. “Well, well, well. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find you here _Wilde_.” He spoke in a smug and cocky manner, emphasizing the “Wilde” in a mocking tone. He didn't have the same Southern Savanah accent the others had, his accent sounding more like that of a fellow native of Zootopia.

 

The striped mammal threw his hooves out in an inviting gesture as if he wanted to embrace in a hug. “It really is great to see you though, I was worried we wouldn’t get a chance to talk.”

  
Nick rolled his eyes at the mocking gestures, “Yeah...nice to see you too, _Dante_.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! There was some payoff after all! It also looks like we finally get to meet the bad guys, and just in time for a cliffhanger (of sorts) too!
> 
> I modelled most of the baddies in question after a South African mercenary company from Uncharted 4, so South Africa is where some of those terms and phrases I was using come from. "Bilksem" for example, comes from an old Dutch term meaning "lightning" and is considered a derogatory term in South African. The term has a number of different meanings, but in this context, the hyena was basically threatening to beat the crap out of Nick and Judy if they spoke up again. "Blimming" and "Ag" are hopefully a bit more obvious in what they mean.
> 
> In keeping with the parallels with Sir Francis Drake, my Zootopia version of him was working with house Leodor, which was a mix of House Tudor, the name of the ruling English house at the time, and Leo, the species name for lion. I'd imagine that house Tudor in the Zootopiaverse would consist of lions given how much the English like their lion imagery.
> 
> Anyways, thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoy what I've written so far. I should hopefully remain on track for the next chapter release. So long and until next time, Sic Parvis Magna!


	4. Tense Reunions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! So here we are again. Last time we saw these guys they were in a bit of a tight situation. No point in mincing words, let's get on with it and see how that all turns out!

_Dante...of course...it would be just my rotten luck for him to show up..._

 

This was not how things were supposed to go at all. Nick wasn’t sure how that damn zebra had even managed to find them, hell, until a few hours ago, Nick wasn't even sure where _he_ was going to be.

 

He’d have to figure how that managed to happen later, assuming he even got the chance. For now, he needed to find a way to get himself and the others out of this mess. Dante wasn't the most pleasant of mammals to deal with even at the best of times, and the fact he showed up with a small army in the middle of the jungle suggested that this reunion probably wasn't going to be a pleasant one.

 

“You know...it’s strange running into you out here,” the zebra began. “Your partner said he came here alone,” he nodded his head in Finnick's direction. “Isn’t that right, Finn?”

 

“Must’ve slipped my mind,” the desert fox shrugged, a bored look on his muzzle. “I’m old, what do you want from me?”

 

Nick had to give the little guy some credit, even when being held at gunpoint and surrounded by hostile mammals, Finn still managed to always come off as looking like he just didn't care.

 

Dante glanced expectantly at the mercenaries standing behind Nick and Judy, motioning for them to speak up.

 

“We found them crawling out from some gap in one of the chambers,” Nick heard the hyena behind him explain. “Looked like a busted door, too small for us to get through.”

 

Dante nodded and glanced back down at the fox. “So Nick, you gonna tell me what you found in there? I know how much you _love_ boasting about your grand exploits, so why don't you go ahead and share your most recent one with me?”

 

There was an edge in zebra’s tone despite his seemingly casual demeanour, that and the hardness in the mammal's eyes told Nick that the smart move would've been to not joke around and just give him what he wanted.

 

Nick had never really been that big of a fan of the smart move.

 

“Oh Dante, you know how it is,” he responded sarcastically, making it abundantly clear how uncooperative he was feeling at the moment. “Just cruising around for some nice real estate, always tough for a hard working fox like me to find a decent place to live. You know, you should try investing out here, beautiful locale, lands cheap, and hardly any other mammals around which I know you would _love_ given how well you play with others.”

 

He jutted his thumb back at the temple entrance, “Wouldn’t recommend this place though, damn thing’s falling apart, bedroom door's stuck, and the old tenants still haven't moved out, not that you probably wouldn't have fun kicking them out, but still, they made quite the mess in there.”

 

There was an awkward pause as Nick waited for Dante’s inevitable response. The zebra had earned a reputation for his cruelty and ruthlessness, so there were a number of unique and terrible ways he imagined this could've gone. Instead of any of those imagined things happening though, the zebra just started chuckling instead.

 

_Okay...not the reaction I was expecting…_

 

The chuckling grew and it wasn't long before the striped equine was guffawing.

 

_Definitely not what I was expecting…_

 

“Oh mam,” Dante managed to utter between fits of laughter. “I always loved that sharp wit of yours, Nick, it really cracks me right _up!”_ The last word being followed by an explosion of pain as the zebra's hoof collided with his face, sending him sprawling backward onto the ground.

 

_There it is…THAT’S the reaction I was expecting...Oh gods that hurt…_

 

Nick didn't feel very dazed by the blow, but all that meant was the pain felt that much sharper, his head now throbbing with a nasty headache. Knowing Dante, he probably did that on purpose.

 

“It’s really is a shame you never learned to use it properly,” the equine rubbed the offending hoof against his side as he looked down at the fox. “With a wit like that, you could've been quite good at talking your way out of trouble, rather than further into it as you usually do.”

 

 _He’s not wrong_ , Nick thought to himself through the pain. _I probably would’ve made a damn good hustler if I had tried doing that for a living instead...probably would've also had way less mammals trying to kill me…_

 

He groaned.

 

_Ugh, and less headaches..._

 

“We’re wasting time here, Dante,” a gruff voice cut in. “We should just send my boys back in there and have 'em tear the place apart. If there’s anything of use to us, they’ll find it, they're thorough like that.”

 

The voice belonged to the hyena Nick had seen Dante talking to when they first exited the temple. From what the vulpine could guess, the mammals were mercenaries of some kind and the hyena was most likely their leader. He looked more grizzled than the others and while he didn’t appear to be quite Finn's age, he was definitely on the older side with some grey starting to show in his fur. He had many nicks and scars covering the exposed parts of his body, but what really stood out was a set of three long claw marks that ran down the left side of his face and over a cloudy white eye. This was a mammal who had clearly been burning the candle at both ends.

 

“We do this my way, Cackler,” Dante responded. “I get that you’re used to having more free reign in your jobs, and if I had brought you guys on to stamp out some scrappy resistance or overthrow the government of some shithole country nobody’s ever heard of, then I’d let you do whatever you thought was best, that’s your thing after all.” His tone became harsher as he continued, “But I brought you guys in for a treasure hunting job, and that is _my_ area of expertise, not yours!”

 

“I'm not your lackey, Dante, this is a partnership," the hyena growled, jabbing the equine's chest with a blunted claw, "and I’d check that tone of yours if you want it to last. It's easy to make a mammal disappear out here when you're the one with all the guns.”

 

“And then you’ll find yourself out of a job and unable to pay a bunch of disgruntled mercenaries,” Dante countered, seemingly unaffected by the hyena’s threat. “How long do you think you’ll last then? I know the dire straits your crew is in...”

 

As the argument went on, Nick felt two sets of paws grabbing each of his arms and helping him up.

 

“Come on, Kid, up ya go.”

 

Judy let out a gasp, “You’re bleeding!”

 

“Yeah,” Nick grunted, “goes with the territory.”

 

“You gonna be okay?” Finnick asked, almost managing to hide the concern in his voice. 

 

“I’ll manage, could _r_ _eally_ use one of those cigars of yours right now,” he looked over at the smaller fox. “Wouldn't happen to have a spare, would you, Gramps?”

 

“Can’t help ya there, Kid. Lost my last one.” Nick almost missed the wink his friend directed at him as he said it.

 

 _So that's why those gunpowder barrels smelled so strongly of cigar smoke,_ Nick realized.  _If Gramps did what I think he did, things are gonna heat up pretty quickly around here and I imagine Dante and his goons are gonna be pretty pissed once they realize what happened._

 

As Nick finally managed to get back onto his feet, Judy turned her attention towards Dante, glaring daggers at him.

 

“So this is how you treat other mammals? Just beating and threatening them at gunpoint? What kind of sadistic brutes are you?!?!”

 

That outburst was enough to silence the argument Dante and the hyena had been having. The zebra turned and stared at the rabbit.

 

Despite the intimidating gesture, she still managed to stand firm against the larger mammal trying to stare her down. For a little bunny to stand so boldly stand against a ruthless psychopath like Dante... Nick had a hard time telling if the reporter was incredibly brave, or just a clueless idiot in over her head.

 

_She's in over her head because of you, ya know..._

 

“Bold words, rabbit,” Dante eyed her curiously. “And who might you be?”

 

“Judy Hopps, I’m with _The Animalia Explorer,_ ” her stance had become less hostile but she still stood resolute, refusing to relent beneath the equine's gaze.

 

“A reporter?” Dante’s brow quirked in surprise, one of his ears twitching as if he somehow didn’t hear her right, “All the way out here?”

 

“That’s right,” Judy nodded. “I’m the one funding this archaeological expedition, the expedition that _you_ and your associates have openly attacked,” she jabbed a finger into the zebra’s midsection, a gesture that probably seemed a lot more intimidating in her head, the fact she had to get up on the tips of her toes to reach that far definitely didn't help matters. “By threatening and assaulting my associates, you stand in violation of the Animalia Archaeological Concords, chapter four, section seventeen and are liable for a five-year prison sentence at minimum!”

 

Nick slapped a paw over his muzzle in embarrassment.

 

_Godsdamn dumb bunny..._

 

Dante snorted in disbelief, “Really? This is _your_ expedition?” He pointed a hoof right in Judy’s face. An action she didn't flinch at, simply nodding in response.

 

The striped equine turned away and took several steps, looking at the horizon of the temple wall as he did. “Nobody out here cares about the AAC, the fact you're naive enough to think it matters makes it obvious you don’t understand how things really work out here.” He turned around to face her again, looking straight into her eyes, “Which probably means you also didn’t know that your 'associates'  there lead you to this temple using research that was _stolen_ from me!”

 

That was enough to finally break Judy’s composure, her ears going stiff and her eyes wide in shock as she was caught off guard by the accusation.

 

The zebra glanced over at Nick and tilted his head, “Guessing you left that little detail out of your sale pitch, huh?” 

 

The fox awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. "Think you're kinda oversimplifying things a bit..."

 

"Oh really?" Dante asked incredulously. "So you're saying I  _didn't_ bring you on to make sense of my findings and then you  _didn't_ run off with all of my research in hopes of finding this place and taking its' spoils for yourself?"

 

Nick blinked, "Well...when you say it like that..."

 

Dante waved him off and turned his gaze back towards Judy, “I’m guessing this was some last chance for you, right? On the outs with your boss and finding some big story was the only way to keep him from cutting you loose?” His voice was laced with mockery and contempt, although Nick wasn’t sure if it was being directed at him or the reporter. 

 

_Probably both..._

 

“You were so desperate to find something that when this shady fox came along and offered you the supposed find of a lifetime, no strings attached, you didn't even question it. Just jumped right into it without stopping to ask who this fox really is or where his info even came from, am I hitting the nail on the head?”

 

The silence from Judy was uncomfortably telling for Nick. He couldn't tell what she was thinking, but he wouldn't have been surprised if she was seriously reconsidering all those less than flattering things her relatives had likely told her about foxes.

 

The zebra simply chuckled in response to the silence. “Don’t feel too bad about it, it’s a pretty common practice for small-time treasure hunters like him and Finn,” he shrugged. “Gotta fund their little schemes somehow.”

 

“You would know, Dante,” Finnick growled, “at least we can say we aren't godsdamn psychos about it.”

 

Dante just shrugged off the insult, “I simply do what's necessary to get the advantage. You understand that better than most, Finn, it's the way the game is played.”

 

"Maybe," Finnick started. "But there's some lines you just don't cross in this 'game,' not that you ever cared about that sort of thing."

 

Dante snorted dismissively and turned back to look at the temple.

 

With the equine's focus diverted, Finnick motioned to get Nick's attention, nodding his head towards the wall in the opposite direction.

 

Making sure nobody noticed, Nick briefly looked over at the wall and noticed a huge gap that hadn’t been there when they first arrived. All he could see on the other side was endless jungle and signs of trampled vegetation.

 

_Guess that’s how Dante and his pals got in here._

 

As far as escape routes went, it was probably one of the riskier ones. He had no idea if that path would even lead back to the bay, plus, the chances of running into mercenaries that way would be pretty high. Knowing Dante, there were probably a lot more armed goons lurking around than just the ones he could see on the temple grounds.

 

Still, it was a better escape plan than trying to get back across the ravine seeing as how they only had the one grappling hook between the three of them. Best case scenario, only one of them, at the most, made it across before the others were shot.

 

 _Not like I have any better ideas_ , Nick silently sighed. _Guess running blindly into the jungle and hoping for the best is the plan then..._

 

“ _Aaaanyways_ ,” Dante continued, oblivious to the silent exchange going on between the two foxes. “There’s still the matter of what you three found in there.” He snapped his gaze back towards Judy, “Nick seems intent on being an unhelpful smartass, as usual, but I’m wondering if maybe you’d be more cooperative. I mean, you didn’t know where the research came from, it’d hardly be fair for you to get caught up in this little dispute just because you got duped into helping these two with their little scheme.”

 

He nodded at the reporter with a phony smile that was supposed to look friendly, in theory, and offered his hoof to her. “So what do you say? You tell me what’s in that temple, and you don't have to worry about getting caught up in the blowback from this. Sound good? Play your cards right and you might even come out with something to show for this. I might be willing to give you a cut of what we find if you're helpful enough.”

 

Judy just stared at Dante, she had managed to recover from the initial shock, an air of defiance returning to her posture. What followed was a tense silence as her paw refused to budge from her side and the zebra's hoof was left hanging in the air.

 

Nick couldn't tell what was going on in the determined little bunny's head, but he knew one thing for sure, the two of them would be having a very awkward talk once they got out of this.

 

_If we get out of this you mean..._

 

“This is getting us nowhere, Dante,” Cackler cut in, his muzzle curled in a frustrated snarl. “I've seen that look a thousand times, she's not gonna talk, damn bunny's too stubborn.”

 

Dante finally retracted his hoof, letting out a frustrated snort. “Fine, Cackler, we’ll try things your way.”

 

“About time…” the hyena muttered before pointing to the hyena and two springboks standing behind Nick and Judy. “You three, get back in there and get that door open, I don't care what you have to do, take Cilo with you and see if he can try squeezing through, maybe he'll be able to open it from the other side.”

 

“On it, boss!” The other hyena beckoned over a striped weasel before climbing up the broken stairs and heading back into the temple, the two springboks following just behind him.

 

"You know I'm smaller than you guys, right?" the weasel yelled at them as he struggled to pull himself up the broken stairway. "Seriously couldn't give me a boost or something?"

 

"Quit 'yer moaning and get your worthless tail over here, Cilo!" the hyena yelled from inside the temple.

 

The last thing Nick heard was the weasel grumbling as he disappeared inside.

 

“Alright then, I think it’s time we got took a more direct approach with these three.” Dante glanced between the reporter and the two treasure hunters.

 

“I think it might be about time we started-" Cackler was cut off by radio static and a voice too distorted for Nick to understand. The mercenary muttered something under his breath as he reached for the radio attached to his vest and keyed it.

 

"Cackler here, this better be good," he growled into the radio. Nick couldn't tell what the mammal on the other end was saying, but it seemed to make the mammal commander very irritated.

 

"He what?... Then get the others on it...That's not team four's job...Gods...Fine, I'll deal with it, but there's going to be hell to pay, you can go ahead and figure out which one of you I'll be skinning for this once I get there." The hyena keyed the radio off and started making his way towards the gap in the wall. "I've gotta go check in with the patrol teams, blimming morons couldn't set up a perimeter on their own if their lives depended on it." He stopped after a few steps and glanced back, "You got things here, Dante?"

 

The zebra waved a dismissive hoof, “I’ll be fine, just hurry up and do whatever it is I’m paying you and your team to do.”

 

Cackler just sighed and called over an oryx, pointing a digit at Nick and his compatriots. “Make sure those three don’t try anything stupid while I’m gone,” the antelope mercenary nodded as the hyena rushed off, disappearing through the gap in the wall and pushing his way into the thick jungle on the other side.

 

_The perimeter guard are idiots? Guess that’s a point in our favour, at least._

 

“Now then, let’s give this another try,” the zebra pulled out the pistol in his side hostler, keeping it pointed at the ground but making sure everybody could see it. “What did you and the rabbit find in there, Nick?”

 

Nick raised his paws in mock surrender, “I hate to kill the moment after all that chest beating, but we didn’t find anything, the place was picked clean ages ago. You basically browbeat your lackeys and the bunny for nothing, not that you didn't enjoy it of course, but still, wasted effort.”

 

The zebra's gaze darkened. “You really take me for an idiot, don’t you?”

 

“Your words, not mine,” the fox shrugged.

 

“Kid, maybe just this once, don’t be a smartass?” Finnick groaned, covering his face with a paw. “I was really hoping it would the cigars and booze that killed me...”

 

Nick was simply stalling but he knew his mentor had a point, he needed to at least look like he was willing to make a deal. Dante wasn’t exactly a mammal known for his patience and it wouldn’t have been out of the question for him to just shoot all three of them here and now if he didn’t think they’d talk. So he decided to throw out some bait.

 

“Okay Dante, here’s the truth. We found a hidden room, but there was nothing in there but a bunch of worn down carvings, nothing we could make out.”

 

He couldn’t just cave right away, Dante knew him too well to not think that would be suspicious. He needed to waste his time with a lie first.

 

_And they do say the best lies have a hint of the truth in them._

 

The zebra huffed in annoyance before chambering a round and aiming the gun at Nick.

 

“Woah, hold on!” Nick shot his paws out in alarm. “Wilde came through here, okay? But so did the Blackhorns, whatever Wilde was after, they were too, and they were hot on his tail!"

 

Dante seemed unfazed by the revelation, keeping the gun trained on him.

 

"Think about it, why would he leave behind something for them to use? He'd destroy it all to keep them from using it! Why else would the temple be loaded with gunpowder?!?!”

 

The deafening crack of a gunshot resounded throughout the temple grounds, Nick's ears flattening in response, his tail shooting straight out in alarm and his fur standing on end. He instinctively started pawing at himself, trying to figure out where he'd been hit, only to finally look down and realize the shot had hit the ground in front of him.

 

“I’ve been reasonable so far Nick, but you’re really starting to test my patience...” There was a slight ringing in his ears now, but he still managed to hear the zebra all the same. His headache started flaring up again as if to remind him what a psycho like Dante considered to be ‘reasonable.’

 

The fox looked over at Judy, she did a decent job of keeping her composure, at least as much as anybody being held at gunpoint could, but the anxiousness was clear as day on her face. Her ears were straight up and swiveling, eyes darting in every direction, probably searching for some sort of escape. Nick guessed her fight or flight instincts had kicked in and it was only through sheer willpower that she was forcing herself to stay still instead of running for her life. That or possibly trying to go all bun fu on one of the mercs, knowing her.

 

Having grown even more impatient over the mounting silence, Dante grabbed Finnick and pressed the barrel of the gun against his skull. The smaller fox yelped in pain at the hot barrel now being pressed against him.

 

_Okay, that is NOT cool!_

 

Nick couldn’t prevent his hackles from rising at the sight of his friend being threatened like that. Even a small growl emerged that he couldn’t quite keep completely down. Dante seemed to notice, but it all it did was encourage him further. That was probably the exact reaction he wanted.

 

“I’m not in the mood for your shit, Nick, you know as well as I do that there's _always_ something left behind, especially when it comes to somebody as clever as your buddy Sir Francis. Now stop beating around the bush and tell me what it is! This is your last chance!”

 

The look in Finnick's eyes told Nick to keep stalling, but he wasn’t willing to test the zebra’s patience any longer, not when he knew what kind of mammal he was dealing with.

 

“Alright! Alright! Fine, Dante!" Nick yelled, waving his paws in alarm. “You win...I’ll give you what you want, just let Finn go.”

 

The equine unceremoniously dropped Finnick to the ground. The desert fox grunted in pain as he landed awkwardly on his side.

 

“You alright, Gramps?” Nick asked, not even trying to hide the concern in his voice.

 

“I’ve been through worse, Kid” Finnick groaned as he picked himself up. “Really wishing I hadn’t lost my last smoke now...”

 

“Enough stalling, what did you find in there?” Dante demanded, pointing the gun at Nick instead.

 

Nick pointed to the satchel at his side, “Calm down before you blow a fuse, I’ve got what you want _right_ here.”

 

“Toss it over,” the zebra ordered, keeping his gun trained on Nick and motioning the nearby oryx to do the same.

 

Nick complied, pulling his journal out and tossing it in front of Dante.

 

_Gramps, that little surprise of yours had damn well better hurry up and get here, already!_

 

Dante bent down to pick up the journal, opening it and flipping through the pages.

 

“Everything I found, it’s all in there. So...we settled up, now?”

 

“Almost…” the zebra answered, turning his gun once again on a surprised Finnick. “But first, you’re going to need a little reminder as to why mammals don’t cross me....”

 

“What the hell!?!?” an outraged Nick yelled.

 

“Hey, leave him alone!” Judy demanded, finally speaking up again.

 

“Wow, wow, wow, kind of excessive don't you think?” Finnick tried to reason. “Usually just cut off a paw for this sort of thing.”

 

“I’m not big on soft punishments,” Dante snorted, his voice dripping with malice. “I prefer to make sure the first lesson is a painful one.”

 

“Finn!”

 

Nick couldn't contain himself, he sprang forward and tried to charge the zebra only to be blocked and knocked to the ground by the oryx guard. 

 

The fox tried to get back up only to find himself pinned under the antelope's hoof. He struggled with all his might, shouting all manner of obscenities at Dante and the merc, but it was no use, the damned mammal was too strong and harsh language didn't seem to be doing the trick.

 

Dante shot the pinned fox a malevolent grin before turning his attention back to Finnick, taking his time to savour the moment as he lined up the shot. It was at this point that the commotion was interrupted by a sudden blast.

 

Nick felt the pressure on his chest ease up as the oryx mercenary stopped paying attention to him and focused on the source of the blast. The treasure hunter was quick to pull himself up only to hear another series of explosions and turned to see what was catching everybody's attention.

 

What he saw was a mass of hysteria and chaos laid before him as mammals around and inside the temple were yelling and attempting to flee a chain of detonations that had begun working their way down the halls and out the temple entrance, progressively getting larger and louder as an increasing number of gunpowder barrels were set off.

 

Nick briefly caught sight of the temple lighting up followed by a massive deafening explosion that cracked the entire building in half, fire erupting from its openings and chunks of stone being thrown in every direction. Not even a moment later, a tremendous shockwave of force and heated air slammed into the vulpine, throwing him off his feet.

 

The ringing in Nick's ears returned with a vengeance as he struggled to once again pull himself back up.

 

_Damn Gramps, that was one hell of a surprise…_

 

As he came to his senses and started pulling himself up, he looked around at the ensuing chaos, seeing that the explosion had managed to knock down every other mammal in the area. The temple itself had been almost completely destroyed, the blasts having cracked it open completely as columns of fire danced within its shattered husk. Large portions of the roof and walls were missing as well, presumably having been thrown clear of the area.

 

The explosion had seemed to cause a lot of damage to the mercenaries, or at the very least, a lot of confusion as the surviving mammals were either struggling to get back up or were rushing around in a confused panic, trying to make sense of what the hell had just happened.

 

Despite the window of opportunity he now had for escape, Nick knew he had to act quickly. It wouldn't take long for the surviving mercenaries to figure out what happened, and despite the advantage he had, they were still the ones with all the guns.

 

He saw a dazed Judy and Finnick nearby trying to get up. He'd grab them and escape, now if he only he could find-

 

_The journal!_

 

Sir Francis Wilde's journal was just sitting on the ground in the middle of everything. Dante must've dropped it in the explosion.

 

_No way I'm letting that asshole get his rotten hooves on that._

 

He quickly picked up the journal as he ran over to Judy and Finnick, calling out to them as he did.

 

“Come on guys, we have to go, now! Before these assholes figure out what just happened and make scarves out of our hides!” He grabbed the smaller mammals in each paw, pulling them up and onto their feet.

 

“Nick...what just..?” Judy tried to ask, still in a confused daze.

 

“No time! We have to go, now!”

 

“What?”

 

“Just move!”

 

Nick shoved both of them in the direction of the gap in the wall the mercenaries had made and they instinctively started running towards it.

 

The fox’s ears flicked in response to the sound of yelling, looking back to see one of the mercenaries pointing in their direction. He didn’t stick around to find out what the merc or his pals had in mind, springing ahead and making for the gap as fast as he could.

 

“We got a plan, Kid?” Finnick yelled, having finally gained enough of his senses to realize what was going on.

 

“Just keep running!” Nick yelled over the sound of gunfire breaking out. “Figure out a plan when we're not being shot at!”

 

Several bullets whizzed past as the three of them ran through the newly opened gap, but none of them struck close, slamming into the wall and ground ineffectually. Without any time to think and hearing only frantic yelling and gunfire behind them, they pushed as fast as they could towards the treeline.

 

Nick wasn't focused on anything at this point. Not the explosion, not the mercenaries shooting at them, not even Finnick and Judy, all he was focused on was pushing forward as fast as he could. The other two followed suit, the entire crews only focus being on getting as far away from the temple as possible. Nick hadn't even registered the change in scenery as he and the others finally escaped the temple grounds and vanished into the thick brush of the jungle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, things are really starting to heat up now! So this chapter was originally supposed to be longer, but I found that it was getting too big and decided to split it up instead. I've already finished most of the work on the next chapter so it shouldn't be too long before I post that one as well. It'll also likely be longer than this one, this just seemed like the most ideal spot for the split. Thanks to the people still reading this and don't go anywhere, our favourite crew still has a lot of crazy shit to deal with! So long and, until next time, once again, Sic Parvis Magna!


	5. Escalation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again! Had some fun wrestling with the author notes, damn thing kept posting the end notes from the first chapter and I had to mess around trying to get it to stop. Think I got that sorted out now though. Anyways, what was I going to talk about? Oh right, Nick, Judy, and Finnick in a tight spot, big explosion, running for their lives, yadda yadda yadda, let's go see how that all turns out!

Nick wasn’t sure how long he had been running for. Seconds? Minutes? Hours? Things had been a blur ever since the explosion, vague memories of yelling, gunfire, and running for his life through the jungle flashed through his mind.

 

By the time he was finally able to make sense of his surroundings, he found himself bent over and gasping for air, trying to steady himself with his paws. The occasional explosion could still be heard in the distance, probably gunpowder barrels that hadn’t gone off in the initial blast.

 

As he started to consider his next move, he suddenly felt a paw grabbing at his arm.  The fox quickly spun around, shaking the arm off and unsheathing his claws to ward off the unknown assailant. The mammal in question turned out to be an alarmed Judy alongside an exhausted-looking Finnick.

 

Judy raised her paws in alarm. “Whoa, easy there, Nick! It’s me!”

 

Nick lowered his claws, taking a sigh of relief that was interrupted by the rabbit's fist as it plowed straight into his face. He let out a pained grunt of surprise as it connected.

 

“What the hell, rabbit!?”

 

“Stolen research!? Are you kidding me!?” Judy started hammering her paws against Nick’s arm in frustration. None of them hit particularly hard, but it probably wouldn't be long before they'd start bruising his arm. “You lied to me and tricked me into funding this expedition of yours with stolen research?!?!”

 

Nick grabbed her arms, trying to restrain her from whaling on him any further. “It was more like a hustle, really...”

 

“Hey, guys!” Finnick tried to cut in, having finally caught his breath. “Can we sort this out later when there _aren’t_ a bunch of armed mammals trying to kill us?”

 

“I can’t believe I trusted you!” Judy shouted.

 

“Guys, seriously…”

 

“You made me believe we could make a real difference! I thought I was going to help make the world a better place! Help mammals to better understand their past! But no! It turns out I was just being sweet-talked by some no-good, two-bit grave robber!” The rabbit struggled to break free from Nick's grip, the two of them oblivious to Finnick’s attempts to grab their attention.

 

“Bah, to hell with this!”

 

Nick and Judy were both caught off guard by the smaller fox’s surprisingly strong grip as he grabbed them both and pulled them behind a tree, forcing them down into the bushes.

 

Nick tried to object only to find Finnick’s paw clamped around his muzzle, holding it shut while the older mammal turned to Judy and motioned for her to stay silent. It wasn't long before the outlines of several figures ran by where the three of them had been standing.

 

“They went this way!”

 

“I’ll radio ahead!”

 

“Head them off before they make it to the boats!”

 

They stayed hidden in the bushes for another minute until they were certain the danger had passed.

 

“If you two are done nearly getting us killed," Finnick started, releasing his grip in Nick's muzzle, "I think it’s about time we figured out how to get back to the boat and get the hell out of here.”

 

“Yeah,” Nick nodded in agreement. “There’s probably a lot more of them out there searching for us, and I doubt they’ll be in the best of moods after that little surprise you left for them, Gramps.”

 

“Now you know why I still smoke,” Finnick smirked. “Cause cigars _can_ save lives.”

 

“Only if you forget about all the mercs you just blew up…”

 

“Guys, focus! We've got a problem!” Judy jumped in. “How are we going to make it back to the boat? You heard them, they know that’s where we’ll be heading!”

 

The reporter was right, there was only one viable route of escape for them and apparently, Dante knew it. How the hell were they gonna get out of here when there were gods knows how many mercenaries between them and their exit? 

 

“Well?” Judy asked in anticipation.

 

“What’s the plan, Kid?”

 

The truth was he had no plan, there wasn't enough time to put a decent one together before those mercenaries inevitably found them. They'd just have to wing it which suited the fox just fine, he was always better at that sort of thing anyway.

 

“Just follow my lead,” Nick finally answered, motioning for the other two to follow as he slowly pushed his way through the jungle and back towards the bay.

 

It was slow going as the three of them moved through the vegetation, staying low to the ground and moving as quietly as possible in the hopes they would go unnoticed by the patrols searching for them.

  

“We should be fine,” Nick said, trying to relieve the other's concerns as well as his own. “This jungle’s pretty thick, even if their trackers are good, we'll probably be long gone by the time they've picked up our trail.”

 

“Yeah, well, there's still the chance of us stumbling into one of their patrols," Finnick pointed out. "It only takes one of those idiots noticing us and then every last one of those assholes will be coming down on us."

 

“Then we’ll just have to be extra careful.” Nick nudged the rabbit beside him, “Right, Carrots?”

 

The reporter didn’t say a word, just giving him a withering look before turning her gaze towards the path ahead.

 

 _That’s probably not a good sign_ , the vulpine frowned. _Gonna have to deal with that fire later...once we get out of here_. He shoved those thoughts aside and continued leading the group through the jungle.

 

Despite how thick the tension was, things ended up being pretty uneventful as they pressed through the jungle. The vegetation was thick enough to hide them for the most part, and they were quiet enough to avoid catching the attention of any patrols looking for them. That combined with Nick's luck and intuition allowed the group to safely navigate the jungle without running into any surprises until they had nearly made it back to the bay. The salty smell of the air and the sound of rolling waves telling them that they were close.

 

"Not much further now, guys," Nick whispered. "I told you we'd be fine!" Just then, he felt a tap on his shoulder.

 

“I hear someone up ahead,” Judy whispered, pointing ahead.

 

“Same here,” Finnick’s ears twitched. “Sounds like...singing?”

 

Nick wasn't sure he heard Finnick right, "You wanna repeat that, Gramps?"

 

“He’s right,” Judy confirmed. “Somebody’s singing.”

 

Having a hard time believing them, Nick crept ahead, straining his ears in the hopes he could make out what the other two had heard. Eventually, his ears flicked as finally picked up the sound of muffled singing, and he couldn’t believe what he heard.

 

" _No, I won’t leave._

 

_I wanna try everything._

 

 _I wanna try even though I could fail_.”

 

“No way…”

 

“What?”

 

“Gazelle..." Nick struggled not to laugh, "We've gods knows how many mercs searching for us, and one of them is singing freaking Gazelle.”

 

“That Cackler guy wasn’t kidding,” Finnick rolled his eyes. “These guys really are idiots.”

 

"Either way, we probably shouldn't stick around for the encore."

 

Nick tried to lead them around the Gazelle wannabe only to find their way blocked by a solid wall of smooth rock.

 

"Crap," Nick muttered. "Not gonna be able to go around them..."

 

He looked back in the direction of the singing and sighed. "Guess we gotta try and slip past."

 

Finnick shrugged, "If they're dumb enough to sing while searching for us, then they'll probably be dumb enough to sneak past without trouble."

 

"Let's hope so..."

 

The singing got louder as they moved forward, going on for another minute or so before somebody else finally cut in.

 

“For the love of all that is holy would you shut up with that damn singing already?!?!”

 

“What?” the other voice responded, “I’m just trying to liven the place up a bit.”

 

“By singing blimming Gazelle?!?!”

 

The three of them were finally close enough to see who was talking. Finding a log to hide behind, Nick motioned for the other two to stay down while he peered overtop to get a better look at the mammals in question. At first glance, there were two mercenaries standing in the middle of a relatively open clearing in the jungle.

 

The mammal that had been singing was a lean looking cheetah with a rifle slung over his shoulder and his irritated partner was a spiral-horned nyala sitting on a nearby stump with a similar looking rifle resting on his lap. Small white stripes could be seen on the parts of the antelope's brown fur that weren't covered by his clothing or armour.

 

“She’s a modern-day hero,” the cheetah insisted. “She champions the cause of downtrodden preds like me.”

 

The nyala rolled his eyes. “Okay, first of all, why the hell would you care about that? You get paid to kill mammals for a living. And given your habit of putting a bullet in every prey asshole that even looks at you funny, I'd hardly consider you one of the 'downtrodden.’ That poor bastard back in Chuigeria certainly wouldn't think so.”

 

The cheetah scoffed, “That goat prick had it coming! Calling me a blimming chomper savage...he's lucky he only lost a kneecap...also his house when we burnt it down, I guess...” A thoughtful look crept on to the cheetah’s face, “Looking back now...I think that might've explained why he was so upset.”

 

"Chomping carrots! These mammals are terrible!" Judy muttered in shocked disbelief.

 

"That's mercenaries for ya, bunny" Finnick noted. "Jobs like that don't exactly attract mammals of high moral standing."

 

“And second,” the antelope continued, ignoring the cheetah’s train of thought. “No she blimming isn’t! She’s just some airhead who thinks having a bunch of tigers around her’ll get her points with idiot preds like you!”

 

Even from their hiding place, Nick and the others could hear the offended growl coming from the cheetah.

 

“And third,” the other mammal said, unfazed by the feline's outrage. “Nobody else likes that pop music kak!”

 

“Uhh...I like her,” a third voice joined in.

 

Nick took another look to see who was talking, finally noticing a hare with black-tipped ears and a mix of greyish and reddish brown fur wearing a pocketed tactical shirt.

 

The nyala looked over at the hare and waved him off, “Shut up and get back to patrolling, Sprong! Boss pays you for your ears, not your opinion.”

 

The hare shrugged and walked off, meeting up with a honey badger who was patrolling along the trees at the edge of the clearing.

 

Nick dropped back behind cover, turning to face Judy and Finnick. “I count four mercs, a cheetah and antelope on guard in the clearing, and two more on patrol, a hare and a badger.”

 

“A hare?” Finnicks brow furrowed. “Hate dealing with those types…”

 

Judy glared daggers at the smaller fox.

 

“What?” the desert fox shrugged. “They’re harder to sneak around, it’s like they have damn radar dishes on their head. Nick and I were doing a job once that got blown when somebody accidentally knocked a pin loose and a nearby hare heard it. Bastard _literally_ heard a pin drop from two rooms away!”

 

“Not gonna be easy sneaking through, not with that hare covering most of the areas with actual cover,” Nick pondered. “Might be better to just double back and see if we can find another way past…”

 

“We don’t have time for that,” Finnick argued. “Cackler's goons are already tearing this jungle apart looking for us, the last thing we need is to waste more time prancing around the jungle like idiots!”

 

“Well if you have a better idea, Gramps, I’d love to hear it.”

 

“Why don’t we go over them?”

 

The two foxes stared at Judy, caught off guard by her suggestion.

 

“What do you mean, Fluff?”

 

Judy pointed up at the canopy. “The trees are pretty tightly packed. We might be able to just climb up and use the branches to get from one to the next without being seen. Foliage keeps us concealed, and we can get through without being noticed because they're idiots, the kind who sing while hunting and don’t think to look up.”

 

“Bold move, bunny,” Finnick grinned. “I like it.”

 

Watching the movements of the patrol and mercenaries, Nick realized that Judy was right. Not once did any of them look up at the trees, they only seemed focused on what was in their immediate vicinity.

 

“Just gotta stay still and not make any noise whenever that hare’s nearby and we should be fine," Nick speculated, "yeah...this could work.” He looked over at the nearest tree, figuring it would be a good place to start. “Alrighty then, Gramps, let's hope age hasn't slowed you down too much."

 

Finnick scoffed, "Been managing to keep up with you for nearly twenty years, that sure as hell ain't about to change now."

 

The three of them started climbing up the first tree, making sure nobody looked their way. Once they were high enough, they used the sturdier looking branches as bridges to cross from one tree to the next, always keeping an eye on the mercenaries below to make sure they wouldn’t be noticed.

 

They had almost managed to safely bypass the group and get to thicker cover when they thought they heard a mercenary starting to shout. The three of them quickly pressed themselves against the branches and refused to move, even after they realized it was just the cheetah starting to sing again.

 

“No more signing, mam, seriously.” The nyala interrupted.

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because you’re going to give our position away, you godsdamn idiot!”

 

“So what? There’s no way Wilde and his crew will make it through. Every route back to the beach is blocked, all we gotta do is just wait for them to show up or for one of the other groups to catch them.”

 

The spiral-horned mammal let out a frustrated sigh, covering his face with a hoof. “The boss and rich boy both say the foxes have something important, they want 'em taken alive if possible, or at the very least intact. Gonna search 'em and find out what they know."

 

"Why bother trying to take them alive? It'd be a lot easier to just search a corpse."

 

"Either way, things'll be a lot simpler if we take 'em by surprise. And it’s gonna be a hell of a lot harder to do that if they hear that bloody singing of yours!”

 

“Fine,” the cheetah finally relented, letting out a sigh.

 

“Lousy, stuck up hoofer,” he muttered under his breath barely loud enough for the Nick and the others hear.

 

“What was that?” the nyala’s ears flicked in the cheetah's direction.

 

“Nothing…”

 

“Better be nothing...”

 

Once it was obvious they weren't going to be noticed, Nick motioned for Finnick and Judy to cross the branch to the next tree.

  

Judy made her way across and Finnick shortly afterward while Nick kept his attention on the other mammals, making sure the coast was clear.

 

“We made it,” Judy whispered.

 

“You’re up, Kid.”

 

Taking one last look to make sure he wouldn't be noticed, Nick started slowly shuffling his way across the branch towards the other tree. He was about halfway across when the branch started to groan and crack under his weight.

 

“Hmm?” the patrolling hare’s ears snapped in the direction of the noise.

 

“Crap…” Nick muttered to himself, pressing as tightly against the branch as possible in the hopes the hare wouldn’t notice him up there. He looked over and saw the dread on Judy and Finnick's faces as they realized their chances of being spotted had just skyrocketed.

 

“What’s up?” another voice asked. “You hear something?” It wasn't a voice he'd heard before so Nick guessed it belonged to the patrolling badger.

 

The fox held his breath as he remained motionless, if that hare noticed them, things would get ugly, and fast. It had probably only been a few seconds, but with all the tension, it felt like an eternity.

 

“Nah,” he finally heard the hare answer. “Just imagining things.”

 

Nick looked up at Judy and Finnick again, seeing both of them let out a sigh of relief. He mirrored their sigh's only to freeze up again as the branch started to groan and crack in protest, much more loudly than before.

 

“Hang on…” the hare stopped in his tracks and turned around. “No way I imagined that…”

 

“Somebody here?” the badger ask.

 

“Starting to seem like it,” the vulpine could hear the sound of feet crunching against the debris on the jungle floor, growing in volume as the source got closer. “I’m gonna check it out.”

 

Nick once again pressed himself tightly against the tree branch.

 

_Please don’t see me, please don’t see me, please don’t see me…_

 

Luck wasn't on his side when the hare entered his field of vision, now standing directly below him with a pistol drawn as he looked from side to side, trying to figure out where the noise came from.

 

A few more seconds, that was all Nick needed and then the hare would just give up and go back on patrol. Or at least that’s what he probably would’ve done if the branch didn’t start to buckle again, the crack was a lot quieter, but with the hare so close, it may as well have been as loud as a gunshot.

 

“What the?”

 

The buck looked up and Nick found himself staring directly into a pair of dark brown eyes.

 

When the mercenary realized what he was staring at, his eyes shot open wide in alarm and his ears went ramrod straight.

 

“Shit! It’s Wilde!”

 

Before Nick could even react, the hare fired off two shots in his direction. Both ended up slamming ineffectively into the large branch. Acting on instinct, Nick rolled off the side out of the way of a third bullet and found himself hanging off the branch by a single paw. The shift in weight and the impact of the bullets ended up being too much and the branch broke loose from the tree, causing the fox to tumble to the ground.

 

Nick felt a pain in his ribs but did his best to ignore. Sitting up, he saw that the fallen branch had landed next to him with a small reddish brown paw now sticking out from underneath next to a discarded gun. It didn't take a genius to figure out who that paw belonged to.

 

_Apparently shooting out a branch that’s probably five times your weight while standing directly under it's a bad idea, who knew?_

 

A bullet flew right past the treasure hunter's head, Nick immediately rolled out of the way as another struck where he sitting a moment earlier. Without any time to think, he grabbed the discarded gun and aimed in the direction of his attacker. Seeing that it was the badger, he squeezed off four shots in rapid succession, two of them going wide while one struck the mammal dead center and another hit in him in the arm. The mercenary only managed to let out a single pained cry as he spun around before collapsing face first onto the jungle floor.

 

Nick barely had time to think before he picked up the sound of rapidly approaching footsteps. Not taking any chances, he clambered over the fallen branch just as a hail of bullets flew in his direction and peppered the wood. Briefly peeking over the branch, he saw that it was the antelope and cheetah from earlier, finally putting those rifles of their to use as they suppressed his makeshift piece of cover.

 

As bullets started chewing up the branch, Nick curled up and made himself as small as possible, trying to protect himself with his arms and paws as rounds started punching through his cover and showering him with bits of splintered wood.

 

“You’re in trouble now, Wilde!” he heard the cheetah yell over the roar of assault rifle fire.

 

"Boss'll get what he needs from you once he takes it off your bullet-riddled corpse!" the other mercenary yelled.

 

_So much for the whole 'take 'em alive' plan..._

 

“Is this about the temple?” Nick yelled back. “Because I swear that wasn't my idea!”

 

When the firing stopped, Nick took the chance to speak up again.

 

“Okay, I know there’s been some misunderstandings, mistakes were made, some people got flattened, others got blown up and tempers are running a bit high. But I’m willing to put this all behind me and we can just go our separate ways before we all end up doing something we might regret, maybe I can even send you guys a cake or something as an apology, sound good?”

 

The mercenaries responded by unleashing another salvo of fire.

 

“Fine, be that way,” Nick yelled again. “Don’t blame me for what happens next!”

 

The branch was rapidly disintegrating as the mercenaries' weapons chewed through it, Nick had to put an end to this soon or he wouldn't havea cover left at all. He looked at the pistol grasped in his paws.

 

_Okay, ten rounds, three and four makes seven shots fired. Should have three left. Idiots are probably just standing in the open so shouldn't be hard._

 

As the assault rifle fire died down again, Nick took his chance and peeked over his cover. He saw that they were, indeed, still standing in the open and reloading.

 

“This is why you idiots really should learn to use cover more!" He lined up a shot and pulled the trigger.

 

 _*Click_ *

 

The chamber of the gun pulled back to reveal it was empty.

 

_Okay...wasn't planning on the hare not having a full magazine..._

 

“Uhhh, any chance you’d believe I was just trying to give you guys some pointers?”

 

The hail of bullets that quickly followed suggested that they didn't. 

 

Nick quickly ducked back down behind the branch. “You know, I think I liked you guys a lot better when you were just singing and reminiscing about shooting goats!”

 

His plan having failed, Nick tossed the empty gun aside and let out a frustrated sigh. "Guess it's time to make a run for it..."

 

Just as he was about to try and make a break for the trees, the gunfire stopped, replaced by the sound of pained grunts as somebody was struck repeatedly, followed by the sounds of a struggle.

 

Peering over the remnants of the dislodged branch, the fox was shocked to see that Judy and Finnick had caught the mercenaries by surprise and were now pummeling them. 

 

The cheetah had been knocked to the ground with Finnick standing on his back, a large branch gripped in his paws that was probably at least twice his size. As the mercenary tried to get back up, the small fox swung the branch down on the feline’s head, knocking him out cold with a brutal thwack.

 

The nyala was struggling against Judy, her feet firmly planted on his back and pulling on the strap of his rifle, causing the weapon to choke the larger mammal as it pressed against his throat.  While Judy had managed to get the drop on the larger mammal, he was already starting to recover and overpower her. The antelope managed to get a firm grip on his rifle and began pulling it away from his neck, the rabbit's own grip starting to falter against his greater physical strength.

 

Just as it looked like he was about to throw Judy off, Finnick leaped off the downed cheetah and swung the branch right between the nyala’s legs. There was a sickening crunch followed by a high pitched squeal of agony as the mercenary fell to his knees and cupped his hooves over his unmentionables.

 

Capitalizing on the opening Finnick gave her, Judy pushed off the antelopes back, pulling on the rifle strap as hard as she could. The attached weapon flew straight into the wincing nyala’s face, slamming into him hard enough to break off one of his horns with a loud crack. The mammal’s head snapped back and he went limp as he fell over backward, unconscious before he even hit the ground.

 

As Judy touched down on the ground, Nick jumped over the branch and ran towards them.

 

“Holy crap, that was amazing!" he clapped in amazement. "Where did you learn to fight like that?”

 

“Now’s not the time, Kid!”

 

Nick shook his head, “Right, still got a lot of mammals trying to kill us. We need to get moving, now! There’s no way somebody didn’t hear all that!”

 

“No kidding,” Finnick huffed, tossing the branch aside. “We've probably got five minutes at the most before every last one of these assholes is on top of us!"

 

“Then we need to move fast!” Judy brushed herself off and started heading towards the beach with Finnick while Nick grabbed a pistol off the downed badger merc and followed after them.

 

They pushed through the jungle with far more haste than before, shoving their way through bushes and hopping over obstacles as they made for the shore.

 

“There’s the boat up ahead!” Nick pointed out, finally able to see it anchored just off the beach. “Just need to make a break for it before any more of those-”

 

“Get down!” Judy whispered.

 

“Oh, shit!” the fox cursed, spotting a team of mercenaries standing guard on the beach with several rigid-hulled inflatable boats beached on the sand.

 

Nick and the others quickly ducked into the nearby bushes before any of the mammals had a chance to notice them.

 

“Great…” Finnick grumbled, “Of course they’d have a team guarding the boat…”

 

“How are we going to get past them?” Judy asked. “They're sitting right on top of our only way out of here.”

 

Nick took another look, there were five mercenaries on the beach. Unlike the last group they ran into, they seemed far more alert, watching the jungle for any sort of movement. He wouldn't have been surprised if they heard the gunshots and were just waiting for the three of them to show up.

 

He took a look at the gun he had taken off the badger from earlier and checked the magazine.

 

_Only half a mag...great..._

 

Nick shook his head, “No way we're gonna be able to take those guys by surprise, they're pretty much watching every avenue of approach. And we definitely won't have time to fight all of them and get out before more of their pals show up...”

 

“Well, we can’t just sit around waiting,” Finnick pointed out. “This whole place is gonna be swarming with mercs soon enough after that little shit show earlier…”

 

Nick furrowed his brow as he tried to think of something. With their only escape route cut off and the enemy rapidly closing in, they needed a plan, and quickly.

 

“Don’t you worry your ridiculously large ears, Gramps,” Nick grinned as an idea came to him. “Cause I’ve got just the plan to get us out of this mess in one piece.” It was a risky one, but given how desperate the situation was, it would have to do.

 

“We’re not gonna like this, are we?” Judy hesitantly asked.

 

“Probably not,” Nick answered. “I’m gonna try to grab their attention and make a run for it. They chase after me, you guys make for the boat after they’re gone, and then swing around to pick me up after. Nice and simple!”

 

Judy just stared at the vulpine in disbelief, “I'm confused...the look on your face seems to suggest you think that's brilliant, but everything you just said sounded completely insane...”

 

Nick sighed, “Bunnies never were the type to appreciate my genius.”

 

“No, she’s right,” Finnick objected. “I mean really? Really?!?! Your ‘plan’ is to have gods knows how many of Dante and Cackler’s goons chasing you through the jungle in the hopes that we’ll somehow get to the boat, and then back to you before this entire place is crawling with those assholes? That is a stupid ass plan, Kid!

 

Nick shrugged, “Hey, you know what they say, a stupid plan is better than no plan.”

 

Finnick sputtered at that, probably trying not to choke on his own rage and disbelief. “Nobody says that! You’re the only one who says that! There are so many ways this thing can go sideways, and then we’re all dead!”

 

“They were heading this way,” a distant voice barked from further back in the jungle, disrupting the argument.

 

“Search the area,” a second voice ordered. “They can’t have gone far.”

 

Nick nodded his head in the direction of the voices. “Well, if you don’t like that plan, we could always just sit tight and wait for those guys to find us. I’m sure they’d love to show you what they thought of that little cigar trick of yours.”

 

Realizing they were out of options, Finnick let out a frustrated sigh. “Godsdammit, Kid! I sure hope you know what you’re doing…”

 

The red fox shot his partner a cocky grin, “Come on, Gramps, you know me well enough to answer that one on your own.”

 

“That’s what I was afraid of…”

 

“Great!” Nick pointed at Judy. “Okay Carrots, once I get those guys chasing me, you and Gramps make a break for the boat and get out of here.” He pointed to the northern edge of the bay, I’ll be heading that way, you guys head in that direction and find a spot to pick me up and then we can all get the hell out of here. Just stay still and keep quiet until the beach is clear.”

 

The reporter shook her head, “I’m going with you.”

 

“What?”

 

That wasn’t the answer Nick had been expecting, maybe he misheard her.

 

“You heard me!”

 

_Apparently not…_

 

“No way, Fluff! This is already dangerous enough!”

 

Judy shook her head again, “Finnick is right, your plan is stupid, like, really stupid. Like, this-is-definitely-gonna-go-wrong-and-you’re-gonna-need-somebody-to-bail-you-out-when-it-goes-off-the-rails kind of stupid.”

 

“Look, Fluff, I get it, you've smacked around a couple of mercs and it's got you feeling cocky, but this is serious. I’m not going to let you just jump into danger like that just because you want to kick some asshole in the muzzle.”

 

The doe's eyes narrowed, “You already put me in danger yourself when you dragged me into this little scheme of yours and shoved me into the crosshairs of that psycho zebra.”

 

"Uhh..." Nick didn’t really have a response to that, the rabbit had a good point.

 

“Besides, we don’t have time to argue about this.” She gestured back in the direction of the patrols that were encroaching ever closer.

 

Seeing no other options, Nick sighed and relented, “Fine, but stay close and move fast, don’t do anything stupid.”

 

“Too late for that last one…” Judy mumbled under her breath.

 

Nick was just about to make his move when he suddenly realized something.

 

“Oh right, before we do this…” he reached into his satchel and pulled out Sir Francis’ journal, shoving it into Finnick’s paws. “Hold onto this for me, will ya?”

 

“Oh, this too,” Judy took the camera attached to her hip and placed it in Finnicks arms. “Don’t need that thing weighing me down while we do this.”

 

“Really? That’s it?” Even with his face hidden behind the journal and camera in his arms, it was obvious Finnick was scowling. “Don’t have anything else you two want me to carry? Maybe your purse? Any snacks you have? It’s not like we have mammals trying to kill us or anything…”

 

Nick rolled his eyes, “Oh quit your whining, Gramps. We’re the ones they’ll be shooting at.”

 

“Once you get to the boat, how are you gonna know where to pick us up?” Judy asked.

 

“Easy,” Finnick shrugged. “I’ll just follow the sounds of gunfire.”

 

“Fair enough…” Judy nervously replied.

 

“Second thoughts, Fluff?" Nick questioned, noticing how anxious she looked. "Last chance to stay with Gramps."

 

The bunny fixed the red fox with a harsh gaze, "I'm not backing out now," her voice firm with resolve.

 

"Then let's do this."

 

Finnick stayed crouched in the bushes while Nick and Judy worked their way up a small incline to get a good vantage of the mercenary team on the beach.

 

“Okay, as soon as I fire, start running, this is gonna get ugly fast,” Nick instructed, turning to look at Judy. “You ready?”

 

Some of the anxiousness in her violet eyes had returned,  but the bunny still nodded firmly.

 

Looking down at the mercenaries, Nick gripped his pistol and lined up the sights. Aiming for one of the mercenary boats, he squeezed off several shots. He had no idea if he actually hit anything since he already turned tail and ran in the opposite direction as soon as he was certain he'd made enough noise. The fox heard a number of surprised exclamations as he and the rabbit bolted and knew it wouldn’t be long before the mercenaries figured out what had happened and gave chase.

 

“Keep running, Fluff!”

 

“I am running!” Judy yelled as she overtook Nick and started to gain a lead on him.

 

“Uhhh...good...keep doing that,” Nick replied as he struggled to keep up.

 

The two of them pushed forward as fast as they could. Shouts and gunshots rang out behind them, wood and bark splintering around them as bullets missed their marks and struck nearby trees. The ground started to slope uphill the further they ran, but Nick and Judy were too focused on outpacing the mercenaries to give it any thought.

 

It wasn't long before the gunfire stopped, but they kept pushing forward. After a while, neither of them could even hear the mercenaries anymore and they finally stopped to catch their breath.

 

“I think we lost them."

 

“For now,” Nick replied through exhausted pants. “Can’t...stick around though, won’t...be long...before they catch up.”

 

“Then come on, let's get to the shore and meet up with Finn.” Judy started making her way towards the water.

 

“Just...gimme a sec, Fluff.” Nick was still keeled over trying to catch his breath. “Didn’t think we’d be doing this much running today…”

 

His break was cut short by an immediate rustling off to his side. Before he had a chance to even look over, a heavy force slammed Nick in the side, sending him sprawling towards the ground.

 

As he was trying to register what had just happened, he felt a large paw grasp his throat and upper body before slamming him against a tree.

 

Looking down at the large paw that had engulfed him, he saw that it was attached to a very pissed looking lion.

 

Nick instinctively tried to shoot the feline, only to look down at an empty paw and realize he wasn’t holding his gun anymore. Evidently, he had dropped it at some point, either when the mercenary blindsided him or during all the running.

 

“Carrots…little help...please?” Nick struggled to call out, the lion's tight grip making it difficult to talk.

 

He looked past the lion’s furious muzzle and saw the reporter charging right towards them. The mercenary hadn’t noticed, but Nick was pretty certain of what she had in mind, and he didn’t like the idea one bit.

 

“Carrots, wait! No, no, no, no, no-” his pleading was cut off as Judy leaped forward and drove her foot right into the lion’s back. Knocking the large mammal forward into the tree along with the hapless fox unlucky enough to be caught in the middle.

 

Nick let out a pained yelp as the lion's mass slammed into him and squeezed him against the tree, knocking all the air out of him. The impact from the reporter had caused the large feline to fall over and drop the stunned vulpine who was left crumpled on his side and wheezing for air.

 

“Why...would you do that?” Nick weakly asked, still struggling for air and feeling nearly paralyzed from the pain.

 

“Sorry!” Judy yelped, clearly shocked and embarrassed at what she had just done to him. “Was trying to get him to let you go!”

 

The rabbit immediately leaped backward out of the way of a massive clawed paw as the recovered lion tried to take a swing at her.

 

“Now you've done it, long ears!” he roared as he unleashed another flurry of claw swipes at the doe. "There's gonna be nothing left of the both of ya's but shredded meat and fur by the time the rest of the boys catch up!"

 

“Uhh, Nick? Bailed you out and all, any chance you can return the favour?” Judy called out as she ducked and weaved out of the way of the lion's attacks. Always staying just out of range of his claws but unable to find a good opening to attack.

 

“Just...need a minute…” Nick croaked as he struggled to pull himself back up onto his feet. He took a few more deep breaths before he was finally able to move again. Everything felt sore still, but at least he could actually help now.

 

The lion didn't notice Nick, his focus solely on Judy. He kept up a relentless onslaught of swipes and kicks, forcing her to fight defensively.

 

Seeing an opportunity, Nick unsheathed his claws and charged the lion from behind, successfully managing to dig them into the larger mammal's back despite their mangled state.

 

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, the lion stumbled forward onto his knees. Nick took advantage and quickly scaled up to the back of the lion’s head, pulling out his grappling hook and wrapping the attached rope around the stunned mammal’s neck.

 

“I know, right? How much does it suck when some asshole is trying to strangle you?” Nick taunted as he tightened the rope. The feline grasped at it, struggling to pull the rope off.

 

“Carrots, you mind giving me a paw?” Nick yelled. “Don’t have time to put this guy to sleep!”

 

He saw the bunny charging forward to take another running leap at the lion, but he was too focused on trying to keep his hold on the rope to properly brace himself. There was a pained roar from the lion as the rabbit's foot connected and he pitched backward. The movement was so sudden that Nick lost his grip and was immediately flung off the mercenary. He felt the wind knocked out of him for a second time as he landed unceremoniously on his back. Too stunned to move, all he could do was stare up at the trees and sky above him.

 

_Why does this keep happening to me?_

 

“You okay, Nick?” A pair of black tipped ears poked into the fox’s field of view followed by the mildly concerned looking muzzle of the bunny they belonged to. “Come on, you can rest later,” she grabbed his paw and helped pull him up.

 

Looking over, Nick saw that the lion was keeled over on his side, groaning in pain as his paws were cupped over a very bloody looking muzzle.

 

“Damn, that is one mean kick you're packing there, Fluff.”

 

“You would know...”

 

“I guess I would,” memories of the kick back on the boat now flashing through his mind. Looking at the lion now, he realized she probably had been holding back then.

 

_Just try not to give her any reasons to kick you...or at least any more..._

 

The sound of rustling and shouting in the distance caught the fox's attention. Looking over, Nick started to make out the sight of more mammals heading in their direction.

 

He looked over at Judy who was looking in the same direction before she snapped her gaze back to him.

 

“We need to go,” Judy urged, "now!"

 

“Good idea,” Nick nodded and followed the rabbit as she ran off towards the shore. "How about we just call it a draw, sound good?" he yelled back at the lion as he ran.

 

“Over here,” the downed predator called in a voice that sounded more nasally than before, “they’re heading for the shore!”

 

"You tend to get a lot of mammals trying to kill you, don't you?" Judy commented as they pushed through the jungle towards the beach, bobbing and weaving out of the way of plants, logs, trees, and other obstacles as they ran.

 

"You know they're shooting you too, right?" Several trees in front of them suddenly bursting with bits and pieces of wood and bark off as the cracking of gunshots erupted. "Case in point!"

 

"And who's fault is that?" The rabbit shot back before suddenly stopping and yelping in surprise.

 

Caught off guard, Nick crashed right into her back, knocking her forward and nearly off the edge of a cliff overlooking the bay below. He quickly reached out and grabbed her, pulling the doe back to safety.

 

"Okay, that one was my bad, but I'm also your best chance at getting out of this alive so maybe just cut back on the sass, at least for the moment."

 

The two of them ducked behind a large stone, giving themselves a temporary reprieve as they looked for a way down to the shore below. From the looks of it, there wasn't any safe path down to the bottom.

 

“Great...dead end...” As Nick looked out over the bay, he saw their boat in the distance sailing towards them. “Well, at least Gramps managed to make it off the beach.”

 

“How do we get down to him?” Judy asked.

 

Nick looked at the cliff, there was a downward slope covered in loose rocks, but it looked like it ended with a straight drop the rest of the way. Not that they could go anywhere else seeing as half of the mercenaries in the jungle were probably boxing them in up here. There was one option, but he knew the rabbit wasn’t gonna like it.

 

“We jump.”

 

The reporter’s ears twitched in agitation, “Say that again?”

 

“Well unless you think that flying bun fu kick of yours will be enough to handle all those trigger-happy lunatics right behind us, I don’t think we have much of a choice.”

 

“How is dashing ourselves on the water below a better choice!?!?”

 

“We got them trapped!” one of the mercenaries yelled. “Move in and finish them off!” They were out of time, and arguing definitely wasn't going to get them anywhere.

 

“Sorry in advance,” Nick started. “Try and make yourself as straight as possible when you fall, trust me, you don’t want to belly flop from this high up.”

 

“Wait, what do you mea-” that was all Judy managed to utter before Nick pushed her down the slope.

 

“NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICK!” she screamed as she slid down the rock slope and over the ledge.

 

"Sorry, Fluff!" Nick took a deep breath before jumping forward and sliding down the slope after the bunny.

 

His legs protested in pain as he found himself scraping against the loose rocks on his way down, but that was still less painful than the bullets flying past him would be if they hit, so he fought through it, occasionally grimacing in pain as he slid until the ground dropped out from under him and he went over the edge. He could only hear the wind flowing past him as he rapidly approached the ocean below.

 

Keeping himself as straight as possible, the flox plunged deep into the water, a brief shock to his system as he was suddenly submerged. Quickly recovering, he immediately started swimming for the surface as fast as possible, gasping for air once he finally broke the water.

 

“Dammit, Nick! Are you trying to get us killed?!?!” a soaked Judy yelled at him as he surfaced.

 

“No, just nearly,” he pointed towards their boat, Finnick waving over at them from the side. “Go!”

 

They both sprinted for the boat. Amidst all the splashing and churning of water, Nick made out the sound of weapons fire from somewhere above. Bullets tearing through the water around him as he focused on getting to safety before one of the mercs above managed to land a lucky shot. 

 

“Gramps! Get ‘er going, now!” Nick yelled once he was certain the older mammal was in earshot. He heard the engine chugging as it started up and the pinging of bullets as they bounced off the boat's metal surface.

 

Unfazed, he pulled himself over the side and reached down for Judy’s paw once she was close enough. He tried his best to ignore the bullets slamming against the boat, but he still couldn't help but flinch whenever one struck just a little too close for comfort.

  
Once Judy was on the boat, Nick slammed himself down against the floor, making himself as flat as possible. Looking over, he saw the reporter doing the same.

 

“Gramps, get us out of here!”

 

The engines roared to full power and the treasure hunter felt the boat rock as it took off at full speed. He and the bunny stayed flat against the floor for what felt like ages, looking over to see that Finnick himself was doing the same as he drove. He kept low and only occasionally raised his head to look out the front window, making sure they weren’t going to crash into anything.

 

Even after the boat was clear of the bay, Finnick still kept pushing the motors at full throttle, putting as much distance between them and the mercenaries as possible. Eventually, the motors died down and Nick felt the boat slow to a gentle drift.

 

“The motors are about to blow out, we're gonna need to let them cool off for a bit.” Finnick jumped down and offered a paw to Judy.

 

“Thanks,” the rabbit grabbed the offered paw, letting the desert fox help her up on to her feet. “What about the other boats? Won't they come after us?”

 

“Won’t be a problem,” Finnick assured the rabbit. “Smashed up their engines before I left to find you two. They won’t be leaving that beach any time soon.”

 

“Nice thinking, Finnick.”

 

“Don't I know it,” the fox shoved the camera he was holding back into Judy's arms. “Here, you can have this back.”

 

“Thanks,” the reporter began looking the camera over. “Uhhh...it's dented...and...is that...blood?” Her ears shot up in alarm at the sight of the red smear covering her  _Pandasonic_. “Why does my camera have blood on it?!?!”

 

“One of the mercs stayed behind, needed to bash him over the head and it was the closest thing around,” Finnick stated in a tone that made it sound like it was a completely normal thing to do. “Thanks for that, by the way.”

 

“You’re...welcome…” she turned it on, confirming that it still worked despite the damage. “At least you didn’t break it…”

 

"I'd be more thankful for the fact we made it out of there in one piece, bunny," he responded as he walked past her towards Nick.

 

The red fox held out his paw for Finnick, only for it to be ignored as the small fox walked past him, grabbing a wrench and jumping up to examine the boat's motors. Nick pulled himself up, shooting Finnick an irritated look that he didn’t notice.

 

Finally having a moment, he took in the state of the boat. To say it had taken a beating would have been a gross understatement. It was littered with dents and holes on all sides. The front windshield had been shattered and the console itself had taken several hits, bits of wire and broken electronics hanging loosely from gaping holes.

 

“What’s it look like, Gramps?” Nick asked as he bent over to take a look at the state of the outboard motors.

 

They both looked pretty battered, but the left motor was definitely in the worse shape. A large amount of the casing had been blown away, exposing the engine beneath. It was a smoking mess of twisted and jagged metal to the point where Nick almost couldn’t even tell what he was looking at anymore. The other motor looked like it had taken a couple of glancing hits and had one or two holes, but it didn't look like anything vital had been seriously damaged.

 

“Right motor’s taken a beating but should still be intact enough for us to drive,” Finnick explained.

 

“But this…” he tapped the left motor with the wrench, only for it to shudder at the contact and fall loose, crashing into the water and leaving behind a smattering of bubbles as it sunk into the depths of the ocean. “Yeah…”

 

“Will that one be enough to get us safely back to Port Breelu?”

 

“Still need to let it cool, and we’ll have to take it easy.” Finnick nodded in thought, “But it should last long enough to take us the rest of the way.”

 

Nick nervously scratched at the back of his neck, “Well, any trip we can walk away from, right?”

 

“Yeah, about that…” Finnick stepped away from the motor and shot Nick a piercing glare. “You mind telling me how the _hell_ Dante found us all the way out here?”

 

Nick's ears shot up in alarm, with all the time they had just spent running for their lives, he never had the chance to figure out exactly how Dante knew where they were.

 

“Uhhh,” he stammered, trying to come up with a good answer. “Lucky guess?”

 

The look on Finnick's face told him that he didn't.

 

“Really?” Finnick furrowed his brow. “You sure you didn’t screw up and talk to the wrong guy? Or maybe steal something of his when you bailed on him?”

 

"Nothing," Nick shook his head. "Just his research."

 

“And you never left anything lying around that he could mess with?"

 

Nick froze at that suggestion, "Well...." Remembering some of the equipment he had left unattended during his previous time with the zebra.

 

"Well, what?"

 

“Nothing he could use.” He pulled out a pawheld GPS from his belt satchel, “Just this GPS.”

 

Finnick immediately stormed over, grabbing the device out of Nick's paw, and started tearing into it. He pried it open and started pawing over every individual piece in a fevered search.

 

“It’s a passive receiver, Gramps! It can’t be used to transmit our location!”

 

The fox was silenced as Finnick suddenly turned around, a furious look on his face as he pelted Nick in the face with something small. He grabbed at it with his paws, catching it after it bounced off his head. Looking down, he saw what it was that had made his mentor so angry, in his paws lay a broken transponder.

 

“Oh…”

 

Whatever Nick was going to say next was quickly forgotten as he was pelted with more pieces of the eviscerated GPS.

 

“Ow! Hey! Quit it, Gramps! Seriously, that could take out an eye!” Nick tried in vain to cover his face from Finnick's furious onslaught, "Okay! That one hit my nose!"

  

“Are you shitting me?!” Finnick finally yelled, his voice dripping with fury, “You just leave that thing alone around Dante and don’t even bother to check it for a godsdamn tracker after you decide to rip him off?!”

 

Nick raised his paws in surrender, “Well what kind of paranoid psycho jams trackers into another mammal's gear?”

 

“You have got to be kidding me,” Finnick shook his head in frustration, “have you forgotten what kind of a mammal we’re dealing with? When have you ever known a psycho like Dante to do anything halfway, especially when treasure and money are involved? This is the same guy who drowned all four of the Ramson brothers just because one of those idiots tried to swipe one of his maps, remember?”

 

Nick remembered that story, he was seriously hoping it was an exaggeration, but really, it was the exact sort of thing he'd expect from somebody as ruthless as that damn zebra.

 

"You always do this crap, Kid," Finnick shook his head. "So focused on the score that you end up missing the smaller details, and it always ends up finding a way to bite us in the ass."

 

"Well...at least we always find a way to pull through, right?" Nick tried to give a half-hearted shrug.

 

"We get lucky," Finnick argued. "You need to get your shit together and stop making such dumb mistakes. You may be a lucky bastard, but even _your_ luck won't last forever."

 

Nick tried to think of anything to say, but his mind drew a blank. Finnick was right, his dumb mistake had nearly gotten them all killed and nothing he said was going to change that.

 

“As much as I'd like to tear into you some more, we need to get moving.” Finnick continued. “Even if he was tracking us, Dante probably only had time to bring in a pawful of his muscle. After everything that's happened, there's no way he hasn't called in the rest.” He picked up the broken transponder off the deck and flicked it into the ocean before climbing up onto the front seat and grabbing the steering wheel.

 

“The engine should be good now, we’re gonna have to take it slow, but we should be able to safely make it back to Port Breelu without running into that striped asshole or any of his pals.

 

“Yeah...right, we'll need to lay low for a few days after this. He'll be searching far and wide for us after this mess,” Nick added. "Will give me some time to gather up everything we've got on Henosia, at least."

 

“Woah, woah, woah there, Kid,” Finnick turned back to look at the younger fox. “Did you say _Henosia_?”

 

Nick waved his partner off, “Later Gramps, we’ll talk once we've made it back to the port.”

 

“You’re damn right we’ll talk.” With that, the desert fox turned his attention back to piloting the boat.

 

Nick glanced over at the rabbit. She was staring out at the water, having been eerily silent ever since Finnick gave her the camera.

 

"Listen, Judy, about what happened back there..."

 

"Don't talk to me, Nick!" she snapped at the fox.

 

Nick was taken aback by her lashing out like that but didn't say anything. She had every right to be angry after the mess he'd gotten her into.

 

She looked surprised at her own outburst, shaking her head and trying to speak more calmly. "I just...now that I actually have a moment to think, I need to process what just happened and cool off. There was a lot of messed up stuff back there and you were the cause of a lot of it..." She kept her gaze focused out on the water as she continued. "We can talk again when I'm ready. Right now though...the sound of your voice kinda makes me want to kick your muzzle in."

 

Nick gulped and nervously nodded before moving over to sit down on the other side of the boat. When he reached the point where he'd be able to look back on these events, this probably wouldn't end up being one of his prouder moments.

 

The fox looked down at the rushing water as the boat struggled on across the ocean, finally taking a moment to tally the situation. Escaping those mercenaries had been exhausting enough, but it was beginning to look like his problems had only just started. Sure, they had found a big lead and managed to give their enemies the slip, but that didn't change one rather troubling fact. Dante was in play now, and knowing that zebra, he probably was going to bring a lot of firepower to bear.

 

 _Take it one step at a time, Wilde._ He told himself.  _Starting with your pissed off partners..._

 

He glanced over at Judy and Finnick. Neither of them looked his way, his mentor focused on driving the boat while the reporter was still staring out at the ocean.

 

_Gramps will be alright, fiery temper aside, he's always got my back. But Judy..._

 

He let out a weary sigh.

 

_Mam, I am NOT looking forward to that chat..._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so our heroes have managed to escape. Well, escaped for now at least. Here's a few random trivia notes for anybody who's interested:
> 
> "Chuigeria" is a combination of Nigeria and Chui, which is the Bantu word for "Leopard".
> 
> And as for the unlucky hare, "Sprong" is an Afrikaan word meaning "Leap". He was an African savanna hare so it seemed like an appropriate name for a lagomorph from southern Africa to have.
> 
> "Kak" was an Afrikaan slang term for referring to something as crap, garbage, etc. but that was probably obvious given the context and that antelope's low opinion of Gazelle.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I know there's a lot of questions that haven't been answered yet but don't worry, at least some of them will be answered in the next chapter now that the heroes will actually have a moment to sort things out. But until then, Sic Parvis Magna!


	6. Differing Priorities

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright! Time for another chapter! I've also got a cover page for this fic up on chapter one now, be sure to give it a look. Gotta give a shout out to TommySamash for their work, I really like the way it turned out. Be sure to check them out over at https://www.deviantart.com/tommysamash. Anyways, without further ado, let's get to it!

Port Breelu…

 

It definitely wasn't what one would call the pinnacle of mammalian society. Dirty, overcrowded, squalid, few mammals lived here by choice. Most of the city's residents were either born there or forced to live there by circumstance.  It was a hard place to make an honest living, that was for sure.

 

Such a city would not be the kind to inspire hope, awe, or even a sense of security in the average mammal, that wasn't the case for Nick, Judy, and Finnick though. After the day they had, Port Breelu may as was practically a shining beacon of salvation for them as their boat, barely holding together, lurched into the city waters.

 

Finnick had managed to do a pretty decent job getting the bullet-riddled wreck to port despite only having a single barely functional motor to work with, but the desert fox was no miracle worker. When the motor finally died on them, they had fallen just short of the port itself and the old fox had to let the boat drift the rest of the way until it finally bumped unceremoniously against the wooden moorings of the docks.

 

Now that they had finally made it to the relative safety of the city, the three mammals stepped onto the dock proper. Having spent the last several hours focused on just making it back in one piece, this was the first time they had a chance to actually asses how severe the damage really was.

 

As bad as it had seemed after their escape from Dante and Cackler, it turned out the boat had taken an even worse beating than they thought, reduced to a mess of twisted and bullet-riddled metal, smoke still coming off from the dead motor and shredded electronics. Several leaks had sprung during their slow crawl back to port and it was all they could do to patch them up before the boat sunk below the waves and took them down with it. The quick patch job had been enough, but only barely. Given the condition it was currently in, it would be nothing short of a miracle if the boat managed to stay afloat to the end of the day.

 

“I’m not getting my deposit back...am I?” Judy asked despondently, her ears flat against her back.

 

Fate seemed to mock the rabbit's question as the patchwork repairs failed and a massive leak sprung. Water rushed in and filled up the frame of the boat as it finally relented and slowly sunk to the bottom of the dock, it’s mangled frame fading as it disappeared into the murky darkness below.

 

“No…” Nick responded, his ears flat against his skull and tail awkwardly sunk low to the ground, “probably not…”

 

“Cheese and crackers...my boss is going to kill me…”

 

“I’ll admit we’ve hit a bit of a hitch…” Nick said hesitantly. “But just have some faith, Fluff, when we find that city, it will more than make up for all these....unexpected incidents…”

 

The reporter didn’t respond, just staring blankly at the churning and bubbling water where the boat had been. 

 

Giving the bunny some time to herself to sort through the shock, Nick diverted his attention to more immediate matters.

 

“Alright, Gramps, we’re gonna need to find a safe place to set up shop for the next few days,” Nick said to his partner. “I’ll gather up the rest of the stored research, both Dante's and anything we have on Henosia, then we can lay low for a bit, learn what we can, and prepare ourselves until we're ready to set out and find it. You said you knew a guy around here who could set us up with a decent safehouse, right? What was his name? Carapus? Caprisus?"

 

“Capras, and yeah, he can set us up,” Finnick answered, a hesitant look on his face. “But I think we’ve got a bit of problem…”

 

“Oh?" the red fox asked, "Think you see one of Dante and Cackler's goons?"

 

“No...the bunny’s bailing...”

 

“What?” The treasure hunter turned around and saw Judy at the other end of the dock, walking into the busy streets of the city.

 

“Uhh, Carrots?" Nick called out. "Where are you going?”

 

The reporter didn’t answer, continuing to move away at an alarmingly fast pace.

 

“Hey! Judy! Where are you going?”

 

“Probably heading for the first bus outta town, Kid,” Finnick said.

 

“Dammit,” Nick cursed as he started running after her.

 

“Judy! Wait! Come on! Just hear me out!” he called after her, not that she'd likely stop even if she did hear him.

 

As he made it off the dock and began to close the distance with the rabbit, a sheep with trimmed black wool and a tie-dyed multi-colour t-shirt stepped into his path, forcing Nick to make an abrupt stop.

 

_Great, just what I need, some speciesist asshole looking to play hero…_

 

The sheep thrust a hoof in his direction and Nick prepared himself for the incoming blow, only to realize that instead of attacking him, the mammal was holding something out for the fox in his hoof. Taking a second glance, he realized it was a pair of shades.

 

“You! Fox!” the ram shouted enthusiastically. “You no good like that out in daylight! You buy my glasses!” He waved the shades right in Nick’s muzzle.

 

 _Crap...it's even worse than I thought,_ Nick silently lamented, noticing a nearby stand and an assortment of various touristy trinkets and memorabilia sitting on top of it. _A_ _street vendor…_

 

“Hey, Wools, you mind moving?” Nick tried to step around the sheep. “You’re kind of in my way.”

 

The vendor, clearly practiced in dealing with reluctant customers, managed to stick with Nick as he tried to slip past, blocking the fox from slipping past and into the city.

 

“No, not wool,” the sheep shook his head. “Glasses!”

 

He waved the sunglasses in Nick’s face again. “Sun bad for fox, yes? Hurt your eyes! Glasses help! Very cheap, only fifty pestas, special price!”

 

“Seriously! Get out of the way!” Nick said, his voice starting to rise as he kept trying, and failing to get around the persistent vendor.

 

“Glasses!” the ram excitedly pointed at the pair of shades. “You buy! You buy!”

 

“Alright, fine! You win!” Nick growled in frustration, pulling out his money and throwing it right into the surprised ungulates face. “Take it! Take it all! Just leave me alone!”

 

As the vendor recovered and started frantically grabbing at the money now fluttering through the air, the fox took his chance and blew right past him into the city.

 

The streets of Port Breelu were a disorganized mess with mammals heading in every direction. The rules of these streets were simple: might makes right, the larger mammals went where they wanted and the smaller ones had to just stay out of the way, it wasn't like what little law enforcement there was cared enough to do anything if some random idiot ended up getting trampled. Being on the smaller side of the scale, Nick's work was cut out for him as he was forced to try and find Judy while navigating the crowds, dodging out of the way of larger mammals.

 

Not making any progress, Nick decided to switch tactics, trying to focus on the rabbit’s scent. He was quickly overwhelmed as the collective scents of the city and the mass of mammals within it slammed into him. He tried to narrow his focus down to Judy's scent, only for his concentration to be shattered by the honking of a motorized passenger trike as it headed straight for him. He quickly sidestepped the vehicle as it passed, the oryx driver shouting all manner of colourful obscenities at him as he drove by.

 

 _Alright, forget that plan,_ Nick decided,   _not gonna be able to pick out the scent of a rabbit I barely know through that many mammals anyways, at least not without getting flattened in the process..._

 

The fox began pushing his way through the busy streets again, his eyes darting in all directions as he looked for any sign of the rabbit.

 

"This isn't working!" Nick mumbled to himself in frustration. "Might as well be looking for a needle in a haystack, at least then I probably wouldn't be trampled."

 

 _Wait a minute_ , a thought came to Nick.  _She wouldn't want to get trampled either, that means..._

 

Realizing she'd probably stick to safer parts of the street, the fox focused his attention on areas where there were no large mammals. It wasn't long before he managed to pick out a pair of grey ears with black tips just barely poking out from a crowd on the side of the street. He could see the ears moving past a number of vendor stalls, briefly seeing the bunny herself as she finally turned off the street and headed down a side alley.

 

Realizing that she would be able to move a lot faster in the less crowded alleys and that trying to navigate the crowd would take too long, Nick instead darted to the side of the street and climbed up onto one of the vendor stands. He quickly started running towards the alley, hopping from one stand to the next, disturbing customers and occasionally knocking over merchandise as he went and being yelled at or swatted at by furious merchants.

 

“Sorry fellas!" he shouted as his foot grazed some glassware, causing the whole set to fall and shatter on the ground.

 

"Coming through!" he dodged out of the way of a particularly angry caracal vendor who tried to grab him, having been quite agitated by the disruption Nick was causing his business.

 

"Got a bunny to catch," he leaped off the last stand and on to the ground while an elephant vendor yelled at him in some language he couldn't understand. Given how furiously the words were being shouted at him, he was going to go ahead and assume it wasn't anything flattering. The fox responded with a half-hearted wave of his paw before turning off the street and into the alleyway. 

 

Some nearby mammals briefly looked over to see what the commotion was, only to lose interest and go back to what they were doing when all they saw was a single fox entering the alleyway and the shouting of angry street vendors. Like most of the rest of the city, the alley was pretty run down, the pavement lined with cracks and rubble that indicated how unreliable whatever passed for maintenance crews were in this city. Fortunately, it wasn't nearly as crowded as the street Nick had just left with most of the mammals huddled in small groups and keeping largely to themselves, doing whatever it was mammals did when they didn't want to be disturbed.

 

Looking up and down the alley, Nick was relieved to see the reporter was still there, walking towards a bus terminal just a few blocks ahead.

 

“Judy, wait! Seriously, just hear me out!”

 

The rabbit kept pressing forward, not even acknowledging him.

 

Since shouting at her wasn't getting him anywhere, Nick decided to just throw caution to the wind and grab for her arm.

 

“Let go of me!” she lashed out, trying to spin around and knock him back with her free paw.

 

Ready for her, Nick blocked the incoming strike and restrained her other arm. “What the hell are you doing, bunny?”

 

“What do you think? I'm getting as far away from you and this whole mess as I possibly can!”

 

“Seriously, Fluff? Come on, you're tougher than that, I know that for a fact after all that ass kicking back at the temple! You can’t just up and bail because things get a bit hairy.”

 

“A _bit hairy?_  A _bit_ _hairy_?!?!” the reporter shouted. “A broken engine is a _bit hairy_ , bringing the wrong map is a _bit_   _hairy._  Blowing up temples?!?! Getting shot at by armed killers for hire?!?! Those are something else entirely!”

 

“Okay, fair enough…” Nick conceded.

 

"No, not fair!" Judy said, angrily stomping her foot on the ground. "Not even close to fair! You lied to me, Nick! You lied and you nearly got us all killed, and you got a whole bunch of other mammals killed, you...no good...two-bit...liar!" Evidently, the bunny had a hard time thinking straight or coming up with appropriate insults when she was angry.

 

Once Nick was certain the rabbit was finished venting and that he wasn't about to get a foot to the muzzle, he released his grip on her, “Okay, first of all, don't bother with the insulting nicknames when you're angry, because that was just embarrassing. And secondly, those mammals were ruthless killers, they won't be missed. You said you wanted to make the world a better place? Well, guess what? The world's a slightly better place now that there's a few less of those trigger happy psychos in it.”

 

"Was any of that supposed to make me feel better?" Judy asked, calmer than before but still undoubtedly angry. "Because unlike you, I'm not the kind of mammal who can look at the deaths of others and the loss of historical knowledge as a positive..."

 

"Was it supposed to make you feel better?" Nick asked rhetorically. "No, not really, but it's calmed you down a bit, right?"

 

The doe let out an irritated sigh, "And you think I'll change my mind just because I'm a bit calmer, now?"

 

"No, but I'm guessing you'll at least give me a chance to make my case," Nick replied. "Back on the boat, you said we could talk, so let's talk."

 

Judy looked like she was about to object but before she could say anything, Nick raised a paw to interrupt her, "No tricks, Carrots, promise. All you gotta do is listen to what I have to say, then you can go ahead do whatever your little bunny heart desires."

 

Judy fixed her eyes on him, paws at her hips and foot tapping as she considered his request. He had to struggle not to wince at her furious gaze and found himself hoping that this wouldn't end with her punching or kicking him in the face again, he'd already had the displeasure of experiencing her bun fu furry on two separate occasions, and he wasn't in the mood for a third.

 

“Alright, we can talk,” she finally decided. “First, you need to tell me what really happened. Was Dante telling the truth? Did you steal from him?”

 

Nick shifted uncomfortably, “It’s a bit more complicated than that…”

 

“Yes or no, Nick?”

 

“...Yes…”

 

“Why?”

 

Nick gulped, this was an awkward subject for him to talk about.  He just hoped he could find a way to answer her without getting too personal. “He was going to rip me off, I just beat him to the punch.”

 

The rabbit raised a curious eyebrow, “What do you mean 'rip you off?' That research was  _his_ to do with as he wished.”

 

“Come on, Fluff, don’t be so naive, you met the guy,” Nick huffed. “Do you really think he ‘acquired’ that research through fair and legitimate means? I mean, I know businessmammals can be pretty sketchy in the 'civilized' world, but even they don't go around with their own private armies.”

 

Judy paused in thought as she considered the fox's point.

 

“Besides, he had no hope of finding that temple without me,” Nick continued. “He had no idea what to make of that research, I did, that’s why I was working with him. Without me, that research would've amounted to nothing more than a bunch of glorified paperweights and fire kindling for all the good it would do!”

 

“Okay fine, so he hired you to make sense of the research he had collected, that still doesn't give you the right to just steal it from him," Judy pointed out. " And it doesn't matter how he acquired it, two wrongs don't make a right.\\!"

 

"You and I have very different views of the world if you seriously believe that," Nick said, rolling his eyes.

 

"Stop dodging, Nick, you still haven't told me how you knew he was going to rip you off,” the reporter pressed.

 

“I'm getting to that, Fluff, if you'd let me," Nick snapped at the bunny. "I knew because the research he had me working on didn't add up.”

 

“Didn't add up?" Judy questioned. "Come on Nick, being vague about the issue is hardly an improvement over dodging it! Tell me what you mean!”

 

“I mean Dante doesn't care about some random temple out in the middle of nowhere," Nick explained. "He wouldn't consider something like that or Sir Francis' expedition worth his time, not unless they were connected to something far more valuable."

 

"You think he hid some research from you?" Judy guessed.

 

“I don't think he did, I _know_ he did," Nick paused. "Or...at least...I knew after I broke into his office and found the rest of Sir Francis' notes."

 

Admitting to breaking into Dante's office didn't seem to win him any points if the unimpressed look on the lapine reporter face was any indication. "Notes that he kept hidden from me so I was totally justified in breaking in, by the way!" he quickly tried to clarify.

 

When the rabbit's expression didn't change, he awkwardly cleared his throat and continued.

 

"The notes were understandably vague, Wilde had almost as many trust issues as Dante, but they were pretty clear that there was more to this expedition than just that temple. ” Nick was forced to push the bitterness out of his voice as this conversation brought back some unpleasant memories of past interactions with the zebra that he'd prefer remained forgotten.

 

Judy’s eyes widened and her ears shot up as she realized what Nick was referring to. “Back at the temple...you mentioned Henosia …”

 

“Exactly, Fluff. That ‘find of the century’ I told you about, that's what he was interested in. I don't know if he knew about the city, itself, but he definitely knew there was something valuable, he wouldn’t have hired that many mercenaries if it was just some small time score. I mean come on, he bugged my freaking gear on the off chance I would figure out what he was up to and go after it myself." Nick paused as he reflected on the irony of that statement, "Okay...maybe he ended up being right about that last part, but still, it proves that this was always about way more than Wilde and one isolated temple."

 

"So that's why you stole Dante's research?" Judy asked. "You realized he was on to something bigger and figured he was going to cut you out?" 

 

"Exactly, Carrots,“ Nick nodded. "Once I figured out where that temple was, I 'borrowed' the rest of the research, got in touch with Gramps, and then we set off to find it before Dante could figure what we were up to. That’s why we reached out to you, your producer had the means to fund us and get what we needed, and you'd get a good story for the  _Animalia Explorer_ , seemed like a win-win. Would've been a pretty good plan...if I didn't underestimate just how paranoid that damn zebra was...”

 

"And what did Finnick think of all this?" Judy asked.

 

"He was skeptical about the temple actually leading us to anything bigger," Nick explained. "But he figured that at the very least, the temple itself would make for a decent payday."

 

The reporter looked down at the ground in front of the fox, considering his side of the story. Nick had made his case to the rabbit, now all he could do was hope that would be enough to convince her to stay on.

 

Unfortunately, those hopes were quickly dashed when it became apparent that she had different priorities than he did.

 

“Nope, nope, doesn’t matter, this is insane," Judy said, shaking her head. "Temples are blowing up, mammals are shooting at us, and all over some treasure, this is not the sort of thing worth dying over." 

 

“ _Some treasure_?” Nick asked in disbelief. “Are those ears of yours not working or something? What part of 'find of the century' do you _not_ understand?”

 

“I heard you just fine, but that’s not what this is really about, you’re hiding something,” the rabbit accused. “There’s something else going on between you and Dante, I have no idea what, but I need somebody I can trust on a job like this. How am I supposed to trust you after everything you've pulled so far? I mean come on, you can't even be honest with me about why you're doing this!"

 

That managed to catch Nick off guard, that rabbit was too observant for her own good, or his, for that matter.

 

“I...can't get into it...,” he said, “it's personal.”

 

“I'm sorry Nick, but 'personal' doesn't cut it!” the rabbit yelled. “Not when it involves something so valuable that mammals are willing to kill us to get their paws on it! Your lies and schemes nearly got us killed once already, and I'm not about to give you a chance to make that mistake again!”

 

“Hey, I got us out alive, didn't I, Fluff? Doesn't that give me _some_ credit?” 

 

“Fixing a problem of _your_ making doesn’t entitle you to anything, Wilde,” Judy spat at the fox. “A problem you haven’t really fixed by the way given that Dante is still out there and _still_ wants us dead!”

 

“Look, mistakes were made, but we turned out alright and now we can score big,” Nick tried to reason. “Think about it, you clearly see some sort of benefit to working with me. You knew what I found back in the temple and could've easily sold me out to Dante and Cackler, but you didn't. You knew there was more to be gained by siding with me, and that still hasn't changed.”

 

“Wow..." Judy said, an offended look in her eyes. "You must really think little of me if you thought  _that_ was why I sided with you. The reason I didn't sell you out to Dante was that Dante's crazy. You may be a liar and a thief, but you and Finnick didn't deserve whatever gruesome fate that zebra had in mind for you two. Don't think for a _minute_ it was because I thought was more to be gained by working with you! I don't put a price on the lives of mammals, which is more than can be said about you!"

 

The fox was stunned, it really was quite impressive how this little bunny could make him feel so small. Although having the moral high ground did tend to make that way easier.

 

"Now tell me, Nick," Judy demanded. "What reason could I possibly have to work with you when you've given me no indication that you even deserve my trust? Especially when it's somebody who won't even tell me the real reason behind why we're doing this?"

 

Nick struggled to come up with an answer, but he couldn't. The truth would've sounded petty and insane, if anything, it'd probably cause her to bail even faster. Instead, he just stood there, silent and still, feeling like a complete idiot as the tension only got thicker.

 

The reporter just shook her head, the silence telling her everything. “I didn't think so, goodbye Nick,” she turned around and started walking down the alley towards the bus station.

 

Instead of saying anything, Nick looked down at the ring strung around his neck. Gripping it in his paw, he rubbed it and read the inscription,  _'Sic Parvis Magna'_. For not the first time, he found himself reflecting on the phrases meaning as well as the various circumstances and choices that had led him to this life, it was something he found himself doing way more often than he'd like. A war of conflicting thoughts was now raging in his head as he struggled to decide whether he was done trying to convince the bunny to stay or not.

 

**_Just let her leave, Gramps and I can do this without her. We'll just have to find another way to scrounge up the money to get to Henosia._ **

 

 

 _It’s not right,_ he shook his head. _She's a good mammal, she doesn’t deserve to be screwed over like this._

 

**_Pretty harsh words for a 'good' mammal._ **

 

_Hey, she was right to be furious after the stunt I pulled. Hell, if I was in her place, I'd probably be pretty pissed too._

 

**_She wants nothing to do with this, she said it herself. Besides, no honour among thieves, right?_ **

 

_She's a reporter, not a thief, and that was always a cop-out excuse anyway. Besides, would Sir Francis stoop to that level?_

 

**_Sir Francis is dead, he’s been dead for hundreds of years. Does his view on the situation really matter?_ **

 

_Yes..._

 

**_...dammit, I can't just let her go._ **

 

His mind made up, Nick realized he had to make one final pitch if he was going to convince her to stay. With no clue what to say, the fox decided to wing it and blurted out the first thought that entered his head.

 

“I’m the only chance you've got!” 

 

That stopped the doe dead in her tracks.

 

“Dante was right, wasn’t he?” Nick continued, seizing on the opportunity. “Your producer was gonna fire you if this job was a bust, that’s why you were so quick to agree to partner up, right?”

 

Judy turned around, “Yes, things were bleak for me, but that doesn’t change anything, not enough to work with you after the stunt you pulled!” Her voice was firm, but her posture suggested otherwise, the slight shaking of her legs and the uncertainty in her eyes showing how anxious she was.

 

“I may be a thief, but I’m not Dante,” Nick pressed, “I’ve done some questionable things in my life, I mean what thief hasn’t, right? But I’ve never screwed over a good mammal.” He pointed at the rabbit, “I may not have known you for very long, but I can tell that you're a good mammal, one that wants to do what's right, even if you do have some possible unresolved biases against foxes…”

 

The rabbit shot him a nasty glare at that last comment.

 

_Uh oh, getting too personal, Nick! Abort! Abort!_

 

"Uhh, but hey, I'm not your psychologist," Nick dodged, trying not to antagonize the bunny further. "So let's just blow past that and get to the point."

 

Relieved that he hadn't managed to drive the bunny off yet, he went in for his final pitch.

 

_Gods, I wish I was better at this._

 

“I get that you don’t trust me, nothing I say now will change that.” Nick stepped towards the bunny. “But it doesn't take a genius to realize that you want to help improve the world in any way you can, be it helping those in trouble, or helping mammalkind to better understand their past. If your boss fires you, that's it, you might as well go back to your parents at the carrot farm in Podunk or whatever backwater you came from. This score can turn all of that around, it's the best chance you're gonna have in a long time. Think about the knowledge you’d be able to share with mammalkind, not to mention the good that could be done with your share of the treasure.”

 

“You have a chance to make a real difference here," He held out a paw to the rabbit, "So don’t you owe it to yourself to try? Even though you could fail?”

 

There was an uncomfortable silence as Judy started at Nick’s outstretched paw. The fox could see the gears turning in the bunny’s head as she considered whether she was willing to take such a big risk.

 

"Oh, oh, oh...try...everything?" He awkwardly sang for reasons he couldn't really understand. Maybe it was just some idiotic way of helping to lighten the mood.

 

Waiting in silent anticipation as the rabbit just stared at him, he let out an internal sigh of relief when she finally grabbed his paw and shook it.

 

“I seriously can't believe you just used Gazelle lyrics against me like that...” Judy muttered in disbelief.

 

"And I can't believe that actually worked," Nick said. "I mean I was pretty much firing blindly at that point!"

 

"No kidding..." the rabbit said. "How did you know I loved Gazelle, anyway?"

 

“Well, that was the only reason I could think of for you do something as bizarre as including it in that bit you did on the sacrificial altars of Cugna Paco," Nick smirked. "I know she says to 'try everything' and all, but I'm pretty sure that wasn't meant to include mammal sacrifice."

 

A shocked and embarrassed look appeared on the bunny's face, "I hadn't realized you watched that..."

 

"Hey, had to learn what I could about my mark-" the rabbit shot a piercing glare that quickly had the fox scrambling to correct himself. "Uhhh, partner! I meant partner!"

 

The bunny shook her head, "Alright, Nick, you win, I'll help you find Henosia.”

 

The vulpine suddenly felt the rabbit's finger jab into his chest. “But don’t think for a _minute,_  that means I trust you. Not after everything you’ve pulled.”

 

Nick winced a little, “Fair enough, guess I’ve gotta earn that one…”

 

Judy opened her mouth to respond, only to close it again, tilting her head as she shifted her gaze past Nick to something behind him.

 

“Finn?”

 

Nick turned around to see his diminutive partner standing behind them in the alleyway.

 

“Gramps! Buddy! You finally made it!” the fox threw his arms out in a welcoming gesture that was only _slightly_ mocking. “What kept, you?”

 

“You mean apart from trying to catch up to you guys without getting trampled by that godsdamn stampede back there?” Finnick replied, jabbing a thumb behind him at the busy street. “Well, after you two ran off, the harbormaster came by and gave me a verbal ass kicking for 'dumping' our boat at the bottom of the docks, most pissed off looking otter I've ever seen, and that includes the time Fisher's wife caught him stepping out with those two sows he was seeing on the side, oh mam was that a mess."

 

"Focus, Gramps," Nick interrupted. "Carrots has no idea who those mammals are and I doubt she's in the mood for another one of your stories."

 

"Huh? Oh right," Finnick shook his head. "Well, the harbourmaster not so much insisted as demanded that we pay for the damage to the dock and the costs of getting the wreck out. Thanks for leaving me to clean that mess up, by the way, I'm sure you guys would've been able to help me out no problem if he called the cops or something…”

 

“Sorry,” Judy said, embarrassedly rubbing her paws together, “Kinda needed to figure things out...”

 

Finnick waved her apology off, “Nah, don’t worry yourself over it, bunny, everybody freaks out the first time a bunch of mammals try to kill ‘em, at least if they ain't psychos. You know, you actually handled yourself better than most, few bunnies I know that could slap those idiots around the way you did.”

 

Judy couldn't help but blush at the compliment. Seeing her embarrassment, a smirk crawled onto Nick's muzzle, only to disappear when Finnick shot him a deadly glare.

 

"You, on the other paw..." the older fox started.

 

Nick raised his paws in defense, “Hey! Hey! Easy there, partner, somebody had to make sure she was alright.”

 

Finnick merely folded his arms, looking unimpressed.

 

“Anyways,” Nick awkwardly coughed, “How’d you get the harbourmaster off your tail?”

 

“Had to give him all the money I had on me just to get him to shut up,” Finnick shrugged.

 

“Ohh…”

 

“Yeah,” Finnick shook his head, “this little 'project' of yours is leaving us pretty deep in the pit. I thought you said we were supposed to be _making_ money off of this.”

 

“I'm working on it..." Nick said. "Managed to convince Fluff to stick around, pretty good, no?"

 

“Yeah, yeah, you're the next _Manedela_ ,” Finnick rolled his eyes and started walking down the alleyway. "I'll be impressed when we actually have something to show for all this shit. Now come on you two, think it's time to pump the brakes on the couples therapy before we draw even _more_  attention."

 

"What attention? We didn't attract any..." Nick stopped midsentence as he looked around and noticed all the mammals in the alleyway that were staring at them. Apparently, he and Judy had made far more of a scene then he had thought.

 

"Oh...yeah...maybe it _is_ about time we made ourselves scarce," Nick said as he and Judy followed Finnick down the alley.

 

"There’s a motel 20 minutes from here," Finnick explained. "One of Capra's rooms, a bit on the expensive side, but as long as he gets paid, we shouldn’t have to worry about Dante and Cackler or any of their goons finding us unless we do something _really_ stupid.”

 

“Great,” Nick said. “We can lay low a few days, gather up what we need, and then we’ll be all set to find Henosia.”

 

“I'll need to call my boss," Judy said. "Gonna need to let him know what we found. Just hoping he’s not too upset about the temple...or the boat…”

 

“Don’t worry, Carrots, surely a story on one of the greatest archaeological finds in mammalian history should be more than enough to keep him satisfied...or at the least keep him from getting out the skinning knives,” Nick said.

 

"Oh gee, thanks for the comforting words, Nick, " Judy said, rolling her eyes as she and the fox started to follow Finnick to the motel.

 

Nick stopped as he reached into his satchel and realized something. “Oh, uhh...by the way, Fluff,” Nick started, looking back at Judy.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“You’re gonna have to pay for the room…”

 

The rabbit stopped dead in her tracks, “....What?”

 

“It’s just that…” Nick began, awkwardly scratching the back of his neck. “I kinda threw all my money at some guy back at the docks...and with Finnick having to pay off the harbourmaster...we’re kinda broke at the moment…”

 

Judy just stared at Nick with an irritated scowl fixed on her face.

 

“I mean, hey,” the fox awkwardly shrugged, an even more awkward grin on his muzzle, “you’re the handling the funding, right? So what do ya say? You good to foot the bill...partner?”

 

The doe let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head. “Let's just get to the motel...”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phew, that ended up taking a lot longer to finish than I thought. The next chapter shouldn't take as long since I've already got it written up and ready for editing. 
> 
> Some interesting notes about this chapter, my description of Port Breelu was very loosely based on my experiences traveling through the Philippines, albeit with an exaggerated emphasis on the seedier parts of the country. I wasn't exaggerating the traffic though, people and vehicles move a mile a minute down there and they don't seem big on following or enforcing traffic laws. That being said, it's a very nice place to visit, provided you do your research on which areas are safe to travel to. 
> 
> The vendor bit was also loosely based on my experiences as well they can be pretty aggressive. I once made the mistake of stepping outside without sunglasses on and the local vendors were all over me. On another occasion, one vendor chased me for an entire block trying to get me to buy his stuff because I didn't say "No" firmly enough.
> 
> Anyways, time to get back to editing the next chapter, hope you guys enjoyed this one and that the next one doesn't take as long. 
> 
> Until next time, Sic Parvis Magna!


	7. Getting Up to Speed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Took a bit longer than I wanted, but it's time for another chapter. And hey, this fic just got featured on ZNN so that's awesome! Hello to any new readers who might have come here from ZNN, hope you guys have as much fun reading this as I did writing it! Now without further ado, on with the story!

“No, you’re not listening to me, we _did_ find something! The location of a lost ancient city, how is that not a huge deal?”

 

Nick was sitting on an uncomfortably stiff bed mattress, watching Judy as she talked with her producer on the phone. As soon as they had arrived at the motel room, she had called in to give him an update on the expedition and what they had found. Off to the side, Finnick was rifling through a nearby cabinet in search of gods knows what.

 

The room itself was nothing special, just a pair of beds with dull tan sheets, a couple of cabinets, and a large wooden table with accompanying chairs. Not the most lavish of living places, but it would suit their purposes just fine while they lay low and got ready for the next step in their journey. 

 

As the fox shifted uncomfortably on the beds, it occurred to him how difficult it was going to be to get any real sleep on these mattresses. Not that it mattered much to Nick personally, somebody was going to have to sleep on the floor and he was pretty certain that somebody would be him given how less than pleased both of his partners were with his previous actions. He’d manage well enough though, the motel floor still made for a better resting surface than some of the places he had been forced to sleep over the course of his treasure hunting career, a lot safer too given that he wouldn't have to worry about mammals trying to get the jump on him if this place was indeed as secure as Finnick had claimed.

 

For now, though, Nick was content enough to just try and garner what he could from the reporter's conversation with the producer, even if all he could make out of the other side of the call was incomprehensible chatter. If nothing else, it made for an interesting little game to pass the time as he tried to what was being discussed through the tone of the chatter and Judy’s reactions.

 

“Well...we don’t have any actual proof it exists yet...” Judy spoke into the phone. “But we’re certain that’s where Sir Francis Wilde was headed next.”

 

Even though Nick couldn't tell what the response was, the rising inflection he heard lead him to assume the producer was asking a question.

 

“The temple?” Judy’s ears wilted a bit and she started to appear more anxious, the producer probably wasn't going to like her answer. “Well, it...uhh...kinda blew up…”

 

The rabbit winced as the chatter rose in volume and became more furious in tone.

 

“Well, I wasn’t the one who blew it up!” Judy tried to explain. “That place was littered with unstable centuries old gunpowder, it was a literal powder keg waiting to go off!”

 

The chatter seemed to die down in volume and tone again with the producer presumably asking a follow-up question.

 

“The boat?” there was a resurgence in anxiousness on the bunny's face as she prepared to give an answer the producer definitely was not going to like. “Well, it...got shot up...and sank…”

 

This time Judy physically flinched away from the phone as it practically erupted in furious chatter.

 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure we’re covered for the damage,” Judy said, trying to calm the mammal on the other end down. “That’s what insurance is for, right?”

 

Given that the response from the producer didn't sound any less furious than before, Nick assumed that wasn't the case. Not really surprising given that most insurance companies didn't really offer plans that covered bullet holes.

 

“Oh…” the rabbit said in a discouraged tone. Her ears going limp against the back of her head.

 

Whatever the producer asked next, it seemed to improve Judy's mood, or at least gave her an opportunity to calm him down a bit.

 

“Oh, the camera? No, don’t worry about the camera, it's....fine...” she said, grabbing the Pandasonic and looking at the dent Finnick had made with it. “Good as new...more or less... and tons of footage to work with, got tons of nice shots of the temple both inside and out!”

 

The voice on the other end of the phone seemed to calm down a bit as they continued to grill the rabbit for details.

 

“There’s probably enough for at least three episodes, but how does that-” she was cut off as the producer spoke up again. The next thing they said caused the rabbit's ears to shoot back up in alarm, “What?!?! No, we can’t just cut our losses and leave! Not when we've got a lead on what could be one of the biggest finds of the decade!”

 

Judging by the annoyed look on the reporter's face, Nick guessed that the producer was unconvinced. “I know we’re over budget, but don’t you get it? This could be the biggest story the Explorer has ever had! A long lost ancient city! Think of all we could learn if we found it! All the lost history we could recover! How is that not worth some extra funding?”

 

The voice on the other side spoke up again, whatever they said caused Judy’s face to harden with resolve. Nick hadn't known the bunny for long, but he had already seen that look enough times to realize that one way or another, she was going to force that producer to see things her way.

 

 _Such a ferocious little_ _bunny_ , Nick silently observed. A _nd you went and pissed her off. Nicely done, Wilde…_

 

“No! It has to be now! We're not the only ones looking for this place, and from what I’ve seen, the competition has no interest in sharing whatever they find.” The bunny's nose was rapidly twitching in agitation and given the fierce determination on her face, Nick wouldn’t be surprised if that glare of hers ended up burning a hole in the wall. “If we back out and these other guys find it then that window of opportunity is gone forever! Not only do we lose the story, but all the knowledge and history that comes with it! Are you seriously willing to let that all slip away just because we’re a bit over budget?”

 

There was another response, but it didn’t seem to discourage the rabbit.

 

“We’re the closest and we have the location, believe me, we’re the best ones for this job. Just give me another shot at this, I promise I won’t let you down.”

 

The phone erupted in more chatter as the producer made their final decision and Judy nodded along with an occasional response.

 

“Uh huh…”

 

“Okay…”

 

“I see…”

 

Fair enough…”

 

“Alright…”

 

"I'll get on it..."

 

“Goodbye, Mr. Hoolces.”

 

The rabbit hung up the phone and slumped down in a nearby chair.

 

“So?” Nick asked, raising an eyebrow expectantly.

 

“Well, I’m not fired yet…” Judy started.

 

“Does that mean…”

 

“Yes, Nick,” Judy sighed. “Looks like my fate is in your paws now…”

 

“Splendid,” Nick said. “This'll go way better than last time, Fluff. I promise you won't regret it!”

 

“I sure hope not, I'm putting a lot on the line by vouching for you." Despite how weary she looked, she couldn't help but brighten up now that she had a chance to turn things around. "Despite all of that, the idea of possibly discovering a lost ancient city...this could be a once in a lifetime experience!"

 

“That's the spirit Fluff, focus on the positives!” Nick hopped off the bed and clapped his paws together. “And with that, I think it’s about time I headed out and picked up the rest of the research. You wait here, I’ll be back-”

 

"Not so fast," the rabbit interrupted, moving to block his path. "You still owe me some answers. If I'm going to help you, then I need to know what I'm getting into, what I'm _really_ getting into."

 

"Fair enough," Nick nodded. "Ask away, Fluff."

 

"Alright, then for starters, just who is this Dante character?" Judy asked. "I need to know what kind of mammal we're dealing with.”

 

“Dante? Nick hesitated, not entirely eager to discuss the subject. “Well, he’s…”

 

“A real piece of shit, that’s what.” Finnick cut in, having set himself down in one of the chairs at the table.

 

“I managed to gather that much on my own, thank you,” Judy said. “I mean what do you know about him? Where does he come from? What exactly does he do? I know you won’t tell me about whatever happened between you two, but I still need to know what to expect from this guy if we run into him again.”

 

“Alright, then let me start from the beginning," Nick answered. "He's from Zootopia, a self-made mammal, he claims. Technically, he’d be telling the truth, he just won't mention all the shady things he did to get there.”

 

“And you’re the very definition of an honourable mammal with fine and upstanding morals, right?” Judy rolled her eyes.

 

“You wound me, Fluff,” Nick feigned offense. “But really, Gramps and I may get our paws dirty on occasion, I mean treasure hunting is hardly the cleanest line of work, but this guy is something else entirely.”

 

“How so?”

 

“Well, he was nothing special in his youth,” Nick explained. “Just a child from a working-class family of no real note, but he was a real pro at befriending and manipulating other mammals. When he was a kid, he joined the Junior Explorer's League and befriended a bunch of other prey with very well off parents. Managed to get in nice and cozy with the group from that point onward. When they were old enough for their trust funds to kick in, he convinced them to use their money to partner up with him and put together a ‘salvage’ company.”

 

“Salvage company?” Judy tilted her head curiously. "He convinced them to go in on him...with a salvage company?"

 

“Well...that's what it was 'legally speaking,'” Nick tried to clarify. “Their focus was on the ‘acquisition’ of historical artifacts. Didn’t have a very good track record though since many of those artifacts wound up ‘disappearing’ under highly suspect circumstances.”

 

“Meaning they were stealing and selling them on the black market,” the reporter pieced together.

 

“Aren't you a sly little bunny, ” Nick smirked. “I knew you were worth keeping around.”

 

His smirk quickly vanished though as the bunny threw him a harsh glare.

 

“Don’t take it personally, bunny,” Finnick said, pouring a bottle full of clear liquid into a tumbler glass he held in his paw. “He does think you’re smart, wouldn't have chased you through that stampede of mammals on the street if he didn't. Kid just can't help but come off as an ass in everything he does.”

 

 _Wait...this room doesn't have a mini-bar,_ Nick thought, eyeing Finnick's drink in confusion.  _Where the hell did he even find that stuff?_

 

The desert fox chugged the liquid contents of the glass down in one gulp, shaking his head with a grunt. “Anyways," he began, continuing the story for Nick, "his friends may have been the ones with the money, but everyone knew Dante was the one pulling the strings. The only one with any drive or clue what he was doing. Liked it that way too, he was good at getting what he wanted from the others while making them think it's what they wanted. Guess that comes with being spoiled brats used to having everything done for them, willing to just go along and let somebody else make all the choices for them while thinking it was somehow their idea."

 

“It certainly didn't do anything to help them stay alive given how they all disappeared during one of the ‘salvage’ jobs,” Nick commented, “and ownership of the entire company fell to Dante. Ended up with all their money to, funnily enough, was quite a _massive_ stroke of luck.”

 

“Wait…” Judy paused, her eyes widening in shock. “You’re not suggesting he…”

 

“The actual details are pretty murky,” Nick explained. “Officially, they’re all listed as 'missing.'”

 

“And...unofficially?” Judy pressed.

 

“Well you got to see just what kind of mammal he is, rabbit,” Finnick said, pouring himself another glass from the liquor bottle. “Go ahead, take a wild guess…”

 

“Cheese and crackers…”

 

“This guy is bad news, Fluff,” Nick continued. He's ruthless, and paranoid, always has been. But it's only gotten worse since he made his partners disappear. I mean, I always knew he was an asshole, learned that personally, but I figured the stories about him and the things he's done were exaggerated. It wasn't until I started working with him and saw just how he conducts his 'business' that I realized just how spot on those stories really are.”

 

Nick took a heavy sigh. Talking about Dante always turned out to be such an exhausting affair.

 

“When I found that hidden research about Henosia, I knew I had to bail before I ended up like the mammals in those stories. Best case scenario, he’d have marooned me on some deserted island in the middle of nowhere. Worst case, I’d be in a two-sizes too small garbage bag at the bottom of the ocean.” A sly grin began to curl up the fox's muzzle, "Of course, I felt that after all the hard work I did for him, it'd be only fair that I get to put that research to good use, but then, I already told you about that part."

 

Judy pondered Nick’s explanation in silence for a few minutes, the only sounds being the muffled noises of vehicles and mammals outside and the occasional sound of Finnick taking another sip from his drink or a puff from his cigar.

 

“What about those mammals with him?" Judy asked, finally breaking the silence. "They’re definitely not from Zootopia.”

 

“You mean is Southern Savannah 'pals?' They’re some private army for hire,” Nick explained. “Very shady bunch, even by the incredibly low standards of mercenaries. What was it they were called again? Shoreline?”

 

“Coastline.”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Coastline,” Finnick repeated. “You met their leader, that hyena that looked like a lion had been using his face as a scratching post, goes by the name of Cackler. He and his crew are a real piece of work, shadier than a Happytown brothel. Got their paws in all kinds of nasty work: coups, ‘enforcement’, assassinations, abduction, ‘acquisition,’ there’s no work too dirty for those guys.”

 

“In other words, the perfect match for a psycho like Dante," Nick remarked.

 

“Wait, what kind of mammal goes to a mercenary company for an assassination?” Judy questioned.

 

“The kind that just wants the job done and ain’t looking to be subtle about it,” Finnick shrugged.

 

“Guess they’re expanding into treasure hunting now,” Nick noted. “Strange choice...doesn’t exactly fall into their area of expertise, not nearly enough explosions or mammals to shoot.”

 

"Really?" Finnick asked incredulously. "You're gonna just go ahead and say that last part without even a _hint_ of irony?"

 

"Hey, you were the one who blew up the temple, remember?" Nick defended.

 

"Yeah, because I was cleaning up  _your_  mess!" Finnick sniped back.

 

"Well..." the red fox faltered, "I never  _plan_ on our jobs going sideways like that. As hard as it is to believe me when I say it, I really would rather our jobs didn't end with mammals shooting at us and shit blowing up... "

 

"And yet it seems to happen so often when you're around," Finnick rolled his eyes.

 

"I...guess it's just part of my charm," Nick awkwardly grinned. "Exciting adventure wherever I go...yay..."

 

"More like a pain in my ass, wherever you go," Finnick grumbled as he took another drink.

 

“You know, Dante _did_ mention that Cackler and Coastline were in pretty dire straits,” Judy pointed out.

 

“Wouldn’t be surprised,” Finnick said. “Word is Cackler made a number of ‘bad investments’ that ended up costing him more than an arm and a leg. Got Coastline involved in several civil wars that didn’t pan out well. Given the rumors, wouldn’t be surprised if Dante was right about them being in deep shit.”

 

“Makes sense,” Nick agreed. “Cackler probably hopes this job will be enough to get him and his crew out of the hole they’ve dug themselves in, and then some.”

 

“They certainly complement each other well if that’s the case,” the reporter agreed. “Dante needs their muscle and Coastline needs his money.”

 

“And they’re both dead set on finding Henosia.” Nick concluded, “Which means they’ll definitely be looking for us after that little show at the temple, assuming they haven't started already.”

 

“So just what are we gonna do about that, Kid?” Finnick asked as he topped off another drink.

 

“As I said back at the docks, we’re gonna need to lay low for a few days and make sure they didn’t pick up our trail,” Nick nodded. “It’s gonna take a while for us get ready anyways since you’ve gotta get our transportation set up. You gonna need to leave the motel for that, Gramps? I need you with Carrots until I can grab the rest of the research we’ve got on Henosia and Sir Francis.”

 

"I'll need to go out eventually to get it all sorted," Finnick shrugged. "But I've got a few calls to make first, I can sit tight until you get back, won't need to be gone too long to get the rest taken care of."

 

“Is that when you two will finally tell me about Henosia?” Judy asked. “Because apparently that city is what’s at the center of all this, and if a lot of mammals are willing to kill over it, I need to know why.”

 

"You mean besides the fact that whoever finds it is probably set for life?" Nick asked rhetorically.

 

"You already know the answer to that," Judy narrowed her gaze at the fox. "I'm a reporter, details are kinda important..."

 

“Don't worry, Fluff. I said I'd tell you what I know, and I will,” Nick promised. “It’ll just be way easier once I have all the research for us to look at.”

 

“Fine, then I’m going with you,” she said.

 

“I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I'm guessing you have no idea how to spot a tail or move through the city without being noticed," Nick shook his head. "No, you’ll be staying here with Gramps and sitting tight while I gather up everything we need."

 

“I hate sitting tight...” the reporter grumbled.

 

“Yeah, that seems pretty obvious,” Nick smirked. “Still, getting bored is a lot better than getting shot or caught and squeezed for info, they do not like to ask nicely. Looking at you, I'd imagine they'd go with clamping a car battery to your ears."

 

"Okay...point taken," the rabbit conceded, finding the picture Nick had painted quite unsettling.

 

"Don’t worry, Gramps’ll keep you company until I get back.”

 

“Speaking of which,” Finnick cut in, hopping off his seat and holding an open paw out to the rabbit. “I’m gonna need your money in order to get things started.”

 

“Uhhh, how much?” Judy asked, a little taken aback.

 

“All of it.”

 

“What? No, I mean how much is it going to-”

 

“All of it, bunny,” Finnick repeated. “It probably won’t be enough, whatever it is, but it’ll get me started. Then I’ll just have to work my charms to get the rest taken care of.”

 

“It's funny, even after all the times I've seen you in action, I still have a hard time associating you with a word like ‘charm,’ Gramps,” Nick said with a smirk.

 

“That’s cause you’re an idiot with no style or class,” the smaller fox shot back. “Certainly explains why I get more tail than you.”

 

“Ouch,” Nick placed a paw over his chest, feigning offense, “that’s a low blow, old timer.”

 

“Okay, that's enough,” Judy sighed, putting her money in Finnick’s paw. “Just take it, before you start going on about another one of your 'stories.'”

 

“You say that now, bunny,” Finnick said with a slight grin. “But after a few days cooped up in here, you’ll be dying to listen to my stories. You have no idea how boring laying low can get.”

 

The desert fox counted the money, pocketing most of it and giving the rest to Nick. “Here, Kid, and that’s all you're getting, you can use whatever you have that passes for 'charm' to take care of the rest.”

 

“I’m sure I’ll manage just fine,” Nick said as he pocketed the money and headed out the door. “Make sure not to cause too much trouble while I’m gone, you two,” he gave them a mocking wave as the door closed shut behind him.

 

* * *

 

**Eleven Hours Later**

 

Nick was standing outside the scuffed up door to their room. He hadn’t really paid it much attention when they first arrived, but looking at it now, he finally noticed just how crummy the place really was, although those stiff beds were probably what should have tipped him off in the first place. Not that he could really complain, they had paid for safety, not comfort. It wasn't like they'd even be able to enjoy the comforts of a nicer motel room anyways if Dante and his Coastline goons showed up at their doorstep.

 

It took a bit longer than he would've liked, but thanks to the money he got from Judy and a few called in favours, Nick had finally managed to get a hold of all the research they needed. Now that he was finally back at the motel, he could give the others a proper rundown on Henosia, and then they could start getting ready for the next step of their journey.

 

The fox took a deep breath, anxious at the thought of stepping through the door. The bunny had not been in the best of moods when they first arrived in the city, although he couldn't really blame her given the fact she was now on Dante and Cackler's shit list because of him.

 

_Let's just hope Gramps managed to lift her mood, being cooped up with her for several days straight is really gonna suck if she's still pissed at me._

 

He opened the door and stepped through to a sight that he wasn't expecting. Finnick was sitting back in a chair by the table, a drink held in one paw and a cigar in the other, well maybe that part wasn't very surprising. What was surprising though was the sight of Judy sitting across from him, leaning forward in her chair and engrossed in the story he was telling.

 

“So then I said to her, ‘Well you’d better tickle mine too ‘cause now I gotta catch the damn thing!’”

 

The doe burst out laughing, her movement causing the chair to fall over backward and send her tumbling along with it. Even after she had hit the floor she was still laughing though, cradling her sides as she rolled back and forth.

 

 _Wow, not even a full day and she’s already caved into Gramp's stories,_  Nick shook his head. _Poor bunny never stood a chance._

 

“Damn, Fluff, you never laughed that hard at any of my jokes,” Nick said, making his presence known to the other two.

 

“Nobody laughs at your jokes, Kid,” Finnick said as he puffed out a cloud of smoke. “I’m the funny one, remember?”

 

“Oh yeah, of course, how could I forget with that charming, upbeat personality of yours,” Nick rolled his eyes as he placed the collected research down on the table and offered a paw to the still giggling rabbit on the floor.

 

“Careful, Fluff, would hate to see a super bunny like you done in by a bad joke of all things. After everything you’ve been through, going out like that would be just insulting.”

 

Judy finally stopped her fits of giggling and looked up at the fox. There was a brief pause before she took the offered paw. “Thanks…” she said hesitantly as Nick helped her up, some tension still lingering the air, but not nearly to the same degree as earlier that day.

 

_Guess Gramps really did manage to lift her mood after all. I don't think I'll ever understand how the hell that old grump does it._

 

“You were gone longer than I thought you’d be…” Judy muttered. If Nick didn’t know better, he'd have sworn he heard a hint of worry in her voice.

 

“Yeah, we thought maybe Dante and his Coastline pals had scooped you up or somethin’,” Finnick said before taking a puff of his cigar.

 

“Right, cause you two looked _so_ worried when I walked in here,” Nick smirked. “Besides, there’s no way I’d make a dumb mistake like getting caught by those idiots in the middle of a packed city.”

 

“Right, and I'm guessing letting Dante bug your gear was just all part of your master plan and _not_ a dumb rookie mistake?” Finnick sarcastically snapped back, a smirk curling up his muzzle.

 

“Yeah, yeah, very funny, Gramps,” Nick deadpanned. "Glad to see you've found your sense of humor again, at least that booze is good for something."

 

Finnick just shrugged and took a sip from his glass. When the smaller fox didn't say anything else, Nick decided to move on to more pressing matters and turned his attention to the reporter.

 

“Come on, Carrots," he gestured at the research he'd brought. "You wanted to know about Henosia, well now it’s time for your lesson.”

 

Judy set her seat back up while Nick pulled up a chair for himself and sat down between her and Finnick.

 

“Alright Nick,” Judy said as she got comfortable. “Time to see if you really do know what you're talking about or if you're just highly skilled in boasting. Now tell me, what exactly is Henosia?”

 

“Doubting my credentials, are you, Carrots?” Nick raised an eyebrow. “I'll take that challenge. Let's start with this, what do you know about the history of Zootopia? About how it was founded?”

 

"What does Zootopia have to-"

 

"You're the one who's challenging my credibility, so if I'm gonna prove how awesome I am, then I need to know how knowledgable you are," Nick beamed smugly. "Now be a good little bunny and answer the question."

 

Judy complied, groaning in frustration as she did. “Well...it was said to have been founded around an old watering hole during a terrible drought. All the other sources had dried up and that watering hole was the only viable source of water left. It became the focal point of every tribe in the region, both prey and predator, with violent fights erupting every time any mammal tried to make a move on it. Eventually, it got so bad that an agreement had to be reached or else nobody would survive. That agreement was said to lay the groundwork for the foundations of Zootopia as we know it."

 

“Good answer, Fluff, I’m almost impressed,” Nick said, proceeding to shake his head. “But no, that’s just a story that got mixed up with the truth. The higher-ups at the time figured it’d make for a good tale about teamwork, cooperation, peaceful coexistence, and all the other crap Zootopia pretends to stand for so they just ran with it and the masses ended up believing it as fact. Pretty easy to do when nine out of every ten mammals in the city are prey, very big on the herd mentality, will agree with just about anybody who sounds like they know what they're talking about, no questions asked.”

 

“Great, you showed you know something I don't, congratulations," the reporter deadpanned, looking very unimpressed. "What does this have to do with Henosia, exactly?”

 

“He’s just building up to the point to feed his ego, he’s an ass like that,” Finnick cut in, taking another drag from his cigar. “Speaking of which, stop leading the bunny on and get to the damn point, already, she’s not the only one getting sick of your showboating!”

 

“Alright, fine, fine,” Nick raised his paws in surrender. “The truth about Zootopia's founding is far more boring than any stories you might've heard. There might’ve actually been a drought at some point, it's debatable, but it doesn’t really matter in the end. Beyond the story they made up, any drought that might've happened wouldn't have had any meaningful impact on the founding of the city. Truth is, the leaders of the various prey and predator tribes realized that co-operating and pooling their resources together was a lot more practical than constantly trying to kill, skin, and eat each other. Also made it a lot easier for them to get rich off the masses, but hey, that's politics for ya. The actual idea for the city, though? That was drawn from many different legends, I'm sure you've heard of at least some of them, any adventurer worth their salt has."

 

“I know there's a number of different legends that tell of ancient cities where prey and predator lived together, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to believe that these stories helped inspire the idea of Zootopia as we know it,” Judy explained. “But that’s all they were, stories, there's no real consistency between any of these legends. The stories of how they were founded, the names of the cities, where they were located, what they looked like, these details all vary wildly from one legend to the next. Most historians believe these cities are all just myths purported by various species and the common theme of different species living and working together just stems from the shared desire for a peace that seemed impossible at the time.”

 

“True, that is a pretty commonly accepted theory. And one that makes a lot of sense in context," Nick accepted. "But I’ve got a better one.”

 

The fox grabbed one a tome and slammed it down in the middle of the table. It was dull red with a gold border and the outline of a six-petaled flower in the center of the cover.

 

“What if they weren’t all just different stories?” the treasure hunter proposed. “What if each of these legends is actually recounting the same city, and each species is just remembering it differently? It wouldn’t be that big of a leap in logic, the passage of time does have a tendency to warp how mammals perceive and remember events. Even more so when different species are involved since each can interpret the same historical even in vastly different ways.”

 

“Henosia…” Judy deduced. “You’re saying that these legends are all different accounts of Henosia.”

 

“Exactly!” Nick slapped his paw on the table, making the rabbit jump a little. “And I’m willing to bet that’s what our dear old pal Sir Francis was looking for.”

 

The fox opened up the book, flipping to a page showcasing a wide variety of mammals of differing types and sizes, both prey and predator. They were all standing in unison beneath a banner depicting a white flower with six petals. 

 

“Like in the legends you mentioned,” Nick began to explain, “Henosia was said to be a massive city where species of all types lived together in harmony and worked toward a greater good.” He pointed out the various mammals depicted in the pages, “Big, small, prey, predator, nocturnal, diurnal, it didn’t matter. As long as they had something to offer and played well enough with others, they had a place in the city.”

 

He was about to flip the page when Judy reached out with a paw and stopped him. “That flower..." she stared at the banner, "I’ve seen something like it before.”

 

“No kidding, depictions of that flower were everywhere back at the temple,” Nick said. “I'm guessing it was of symbolic importance to the city.”

 

“No, I mean even before the temple, I’ve seen something similar to that flower before. I was trying to figure it out earlier, but then I got sidetracked when we ran into Dante,” the rabbit's ears started twitching and the sound of her foot tapping against the leg of the chair could be heard as she struggled to recall the memory.

 

“Oh! I remember now!” Judy excitedly announced, practically jumping in her seat. “ _Midnicampus holicithias,_  that’s what I was thinking of!”

 

Nick just stared blankly at the rabbit, “Miniholo-what-now?”

 

“Night Howlers,” Finnick answered. "She's talking about Night Howlers."

 

“Night Howlers? Why does that name sound so familiar?" Nick thought out loud as he tried to remember where he'd heard that name before. “Wait, aren’t those the flowers that make mammals go berserk if they eat them?”

 

“What?” Judy asked perplexedly, “No, they’re used by farmers for pest control. My dad plants them in the fields to keep insects away from the crops, I’ve never heard about them driving anybody savage, they aren’t even meant to be eaten.”

 

“Tell that to Usar and the Icebreakers,” Finnick replied.

 

“Usar?” Nick inquired, thinking back to the incident Finnick was referring to. “That tiger we worked with on the Nestuka Job? That was the one who went crazy and massacred the client along with most of his own crew during the exchange. You're telling me he was on Night Howlers?”

 

“You were in the same bar, Kid, did you think he just hated the booze _that_ much?” Finnick sassed. “Some asshole slipped a bunch of Night Howler into his drink, probably was looking to disrupt the deal and figured a rampaging tiger would do the trick.”

 

“Well if that was the goal then it sure as hell worked, and then some,” Nick shuddered, recalling how smoothly everything had seemed to be going until that tiger had started choking on his drink. It hadn't been the fastest things had gone from calm to complete chaos in the course of his treasure hunting career, but it was definitely up there, probably at least the top three.

 

“No kidding,” Finnick grumbled. “Nearly froze my tail off trying to get that artifact only to have a tiger nearly take my head off. Didn’t even get paid after all that shit since the damn client went and got himself ripped to shreds.”

 

“Hey, it wasn't a complete wash, we managed to pawn it for a decent amount,” Nick reminded him. “And given how sideways that whole thing went, I'd say we were lucky enough to escape with our hides intact.”

 

“I had no idea they could do that...” Judy muttered, briefly paused in shock before shaking her head and bringing the conversation back on track. “But those flowers at the temple and in this book, they remind me of _Midnicampus-”_

 

“Yeah...there's no way we're gonna be able to remember that name, Fluff,” Nick interrupted. “Pretty sure Gramps is already getting a headache from trying to remember it," he looked over to see the desert fox scowling at him, "or maybe it's just the cheap cigars."

 

“Fine, they remind me of _Night Howlers."_ The rabbit took another look at the picture and furrowed her brow, "But I don’t think they’re the same species.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Look at them,” Judy pointed at the flowers depicted on the banner. “These flowers are white.”

 

“So?”

 

“Night Howlers are dark blue.”

 

“A related species, maybe?” Nick suggested. "Some sort of genetic off-shoot?"

 

“Perhaps, but if they are, then they're not anything I’ve ever seen or heard of before,” Judy answered. “And why hold a flower like that in such high regard, anyway?”

 

“Wouldn’t be the only culture out there that considered a flower like that to be of high status,” Nick explained. “There's a whole bunch of cultures and civilizations that believed night howlers could be used to strengthen their warriors in battle. Wouldn't be wrong, a rampaging lion frothing at the mouth and hell-bent on cutting you down to ribbons makes for a pretty strong rebuttal to most arguments. Some cultures even used them as part of a rite of ascension for selecting new rulers, you manage to eat one without going crazy, then you’re strong enough to rule, that sort of thing.”

 

"That sounds...messy."

 

"Yeah, those ascension rituals tended to be pretty bloody affairs more often than not," Nick said, looking down at the flower.

 

 _Gotta wonder though, what did Henosia use this flower for?_ Nick pondered to himself before deciding to get on with the history lesson.

"Anyways, let's put a pin in that whole Night Howler thing for later. We can tackle that again after I get you up to speed on Henosia.”

 

Nick flipped to a drawing of the city that looked similar to the murals they had seen lining the halls of the temple. The city itself was depicted in a display of almost divine radiance with rays of light shining off of it, making it seem less like a city and more like some sort of divine beacon. All along the perimeter of the city were the mysterious white Night Howlers. Like the city, they also seemed to be practically glowing with holy radiance, further supporting Nick's suggestion of the value the city placed on them.

 

“The city was said to be a paradise where mammals lived in peace and prosperity. I'm always wary of anybody who tries to claim that anything's a paradise, but if the records I've got are any indication, then the city was an economic, social, and cultural powerhouse of the ancient world.”

 

He flipped to another set of pages, one showing piles of gold and treasure while the other seemed to depict scholarly mammals writing on scrolls or carrying various texts and tomes. “There are stories that the city's vaults contained wealth beyond measure, more than the city could ever hope to spend in a thousand years. It was also said to have some of the most elaborate archives in the world, each supposedly a treasure trove of knowledge and wisdom."

 

"This all sounds amazing," Judy muttered in awe.

 

"I know, right?" Nick chuckled. "Forget Zootopia, this sounds like the place to be!"

 

He started flipping pages again, resting on one that was far less flattering in its depiction of the city. The gates were shut and the city was now partially shrouded in darkness. No longer depicted in an aura of radiance, it looked like it was now on the brink of being consumed by encroaching darkness. Groups of mammals were rushing the walls of the city, clawing at them as they tried to force their way inside, others were raising their arms up as if begging to be let in. The next page depicted them slumping away in defeat, the city itself in the background and completely shrouded in shadow.

 

“But if this job has taught me anything, it’s that nothing lasts forever,” Nick continued. “One day, the city just went silent, no buildup, no conflict, nothing. The gates just closed and all activity in the city stopped, no trace of mammals or anything within the walls. Some mammals tried to get in, they were determined to either figure out what was going on or try to take advantage and loot the place, but the few who did manage to find a way in never came back. Eventually, the rest just gave up and left, and the city soon disappeared entirely, although that may just be an exaggeration and the knowledge of its location was simply lost due to the events that followed shortly afterwards."

 

He turned to another page, this one depicted a scene of mass hysteria and chaos. Armies of mammals could be seen clashing with each other as cities burned in the background. Some mammals struggled against one another in bloody combat,  be it with swords, claws, fangs, or anything else on paw, while others were cowering, fleeing, or down on their paws and knees begging their gods for mercy.

 

“There’s a theory that the disappearance of Henosia lead to an event called the Great Collapse. The records reference a number of civilizations that existed at the same time, with Henosia acting as a sort of keystone that kept the other civilizations in line and co-operating with each other, even if the cities themselves were not nearly as inclusive," Nick described. "Once Henosia vanished, all hell broke loose as the other civilizations started to collapse into anarchy. Details are kind of sketchy, but whatever happened, it was sudden, violent, and delivered such a massive shock to mammalkind that by the time the dust had finally settled, all the civilizations had disappeared. After that, most of mammalkind had reverted back to the more primitive practices that embody what we call the stone age: tribes, predation, going savage, making clothes out of the hides of mammals from rival tribes, all that lovely business."

 

“But what actually happened to Henosia?” Judy asked. “A city doesn't just disappear without a trace, especially one that important. There has to have been something left behind, even with all the destruction caused by this 'collapse.'”

 

“Nobody knows,” Nick answered. “The records mentioned something about the gods either destroying or concealing Henosia and causing the collapse of the other ancient civilizations as a punishment on mammalkind for turning away from them. Seems with all the cooperation going on, they started to figure they didn't need their gods anymore. I guess that's one way to make sure your children appreciate you though, take away their most treasured city, then plunge their entire society into anarchy and chaos until all that's left are a bunch of primitive tribes running around skewering each other with sharp sticks, eating each other, and bashing each other's brains in with rocks, talk about tough parenting."

 

"You don't seem like the kind to believe in the gods," Judy doubted.

 

The fox shrugged, “Nah, don't really believe that, or at least the theory about how 'the gods did it', anyway. Was probably just a convenient excuse to cover up what I imagine was a much more embarrassing and scandalous reason behind the city’s decline and the subsequent 'Great Collapse' that followed. Either way, the end result was the same, the city was forgotten and faded into legend. And eventually, even that legend faded from the collective memories of mammalkind. Most of the records of Henosia and the other civilizations were most likely lost during the chaos brought on by the Great Collapse, and even those that did survive were rejected by most of the archaeological community as fairy tales and nonsense.”

 

“Only a pawful of records have survived to this day, this book is one of them,” Nick tapped the pages with a digit. “Nowadays, the city is only really remembered through those legends that inspired Zootopia, and even those cities are believed to be myths, so naturally, there are very few out there who've even heard of Henosia, and even less who believe that it's real.”

 

“Then we'll just have to follow Sir Francis' trail then,” Judy said. “Find the city and then we'll get all the proof we need that it's real!”

 

“I take it that means you’ll be providing more than just financial assistance, then?”

 

“Of course, there's no way I'd pass up the opportunity to see this place in person!" Judy said, practically beaming with excitement only for it to quickly vanish as she shot the fox a stern look. "And besides, after all the stunts you've pulled, it's the only way I can be sure you won't just ditch me and try to take it for yourself." 

 

“Ouch,” Nick winced. “That’s harsh...and fair given what’s happened so far…” The fox glanced over at his older partner, “Which means we need to get our transportation sorted out, how's that going, by the way, Gramps?”

 

“Made a few calls and the money's got me started. Bunny managed to squeeze her producer for some extra so we're moving even faster than I thought," Finnick answered. "Marian should be good to get us there once she’s ready in a few days time."

 

“Marian?” Judy asked.

 

“Gramps' one true sweetheart,” Nick smirked. “Don’t worry, you’ll meet her soon enough.”

 

“I've been thinking though...” Finnick started. “Are we really sure about this? I can get Marian ready soon, but this job is starting to sound way too hot for us.”

 

“Too hot?" Nick quirked his brow. "What are you getting at?”

 

“As much as I like the sound of ‘wealth beyond measure,'” Finnick said, “I feel like I need to remind you guys that we're not the only ones looking for this place. If we do this, we don't only have to worry about Dante and Cackler, but also the entire godsdamn army they’ve got backing them up.”

 

“Okay, so maybe they've got some muscle with them, but they don’t even know where the city is,” Nick countered. “We do, that gives us the upper paw. That army of theirs isn't gonna do them much good if they don't even know where to go.”

 

“That’s what you thought when you ditched Dante last time,” Finnick pointed out. “How’d that turn out for us, again?”

 

“Things are different this time.”

 

“Not nearly different enough, say what you will about that zebra, he’s determined and resourceful,” Finnick countered. “He found us once, what the hell's to stop him from doing it again? And he'll probably have even more of his Coastline pals with him the next time around.”

 

"Why are you so reluctant all of a sudden? You were the one who was constantly bitching about how we'd better be getting a good payday out of this," Nick pointed out. "We're looking at the ultimate payday once we pull this off!"

 

"When I say a 'good payday', I mean making enough money to spend the next six months drinking and chasing tail in Bochi," Finnick growled. "Not the kind of shit that some mammals want so bad they'll send an entire godsdamn army after you!"

 

“I’m not walking away from this Gramps,” Nick stated resolutely. “And if you’re right, then that just means we need to get there sooner rather than later before Dante figures out how to find it on his own.”

 

Finnick just shook his head and let out an exasperated sigh.   

 

"Kid, can I have a word with you?" The sandy coloured fox glanced over at the bunny, "Alone?"

 

Both of the foxes looked at Judy who just sat there in awkward silence.

 

"I'll just be out in the hallway then," the reporter finally said. She hopped off her chair and walked out the door, closing it shut behind her.

 

Once the rabbit was gone, Finnick chugged the entirety of his drink, slamming the glass down on the table and glaring angrily at Nick. "You're out of your godsdamn mind, you know that, right?"

 

"That seems a little harsh," Nick said. "You're overreacting, Gramps, we've been through worse than this."

 

"No we haven't, Kid, nothing like this," Finnick argued. "I mean sure, we've gone up against rival treasure hunting crews and even a few pirate bands that in the past. But those guys barely knew how to even hold a gun, that won't be the case with the likes of Coastline ."

 

He poured himself another drink and downed the whole thing. Nick had no idea how such a small mammal could hold his liquor like that, that much probably would've been enough to knock him flat at this point, but Finnick looked like he was barely buzzed.

 

"And now you've got this bunny all wrapped up in this little scheme of yours," the older fox continued, pointing at the door to the hallway. "And she has even less of a clue what she's going up against than you do!"

 

"She can take care of herself," Nick pointed out. "You saw how she handled those Coastline idiots back at the temple."

 

"She got lucky, Kid, we all did. How long do you think that'll last?" Finnick challenged. "A good treasure hunter needs to know when to walk away from the table, all that gold and fame ain't gonna be worth shit if you're too dead to enjoy it. Do the smart thing, Nick, it ain't worth your life, or the bunny's."

 

"So just give up, then? That’s what you’re saying?" Nick shot back. "I’m not just gonna walk away from this, Finn, this isn’t just some simple artifact or payday. This is Henosia we’re talking about, a literal city of legend. This is the sort of opportunity I’ve been waiting my entire life for! I can’t just cut and run now, no matter how dangerous it is. Especially if it means letting that bastard Dante win!"

 

There was an awkward pause as Nick left that statement hanging. Even when he wasn't in the room, Dante always found a way to make things tense.

 

"Look, I know it’s just a business to you and that’s fine," Nick assured his partner. "If you want to back out of this then I won't hold it against you, but I’m still going, and you know Judy will as well. Sure, she may have had some first-time jitters after we escaped the temple, but once she cleared her head, it was obvious how badly she wanted this, even if her job didn't depend on it. You saw how determined she was when she convinced her producer to keep this going, or the way her eyes lit up as I described the city, this is probably just as important to her as it is to me." 

 

Finnick just stared at Nick in silence for what felt like an eternity, his face unreadable as he considered his next words. He finally let out an irritated sigh, "I always knew you were gonna get me killed one of these days, Kid..."

 

The desert fox took a long puff of his cigar before putting it out in his ashtray. "Alright, Nick, you win. If you're set on finding that godsdamn city despite everything, then I guess I'm coming with you."

 

"So you'll still help me?" Nick asked. "Even after trying so hard to talk me out of it?"

 

"What kind of stupid question is that?" Finnick scoffed. "Of course I'll help you. I've had your back for nearly twenty years, I'm sure as hell not gonna bail on you now."

 

"Thanks, Gramps," Nick smiled, he may have been a grumpy old bastard, but Finnick was always there for him when it counted. "You're a good partner, you know that, right?"

 

"Better than your sorry ass deserves, that's for sure," Finnick grumbled. "If we're actually gonna do this, then you'd better go grab the bunny."

 

"Can do," Nick started to walk towards the door before looking back at Finnick. "You know she heard all of that, right?"

 

"Oh yeah," Finnick nodded, flicking one of his ears. "I can hear her pressed up against the door."

 

"I am not!" the bunny's voice called out from outside. A smug smirk curled onto the muzzles of both of the foxes as they let the awkwardness sink in.

 

"Uhh...I mean...oh shoot," the muffled voice muttered.

 

Nick opened the door to a very embarrassed looking bunny, her ears drooped behind her back and her face practically glowing bright pink beneath her fur.

 

"Sorry..."

 

"Don't worry about it, Fluff, I would've probably done the same," Nick chuckled as he followed Judy back to the table and sat down next to her. "But seriously though, this isn't gonna be easy, we're wandering deep into uncharted territory here. Are you sure you're up for it?

 

"I can take care of myself, Nick," the reporter said firmly. Nick knew how badly she wanted this, there was no way she was going to back out. "Besides, you owe me."

  

“I suppose I do,” Nick shrugged before grabbing some of the research and passing it to his associates. "Alright then, we've got a few days still before Marian’s ready to take us out. Too risky for any more than one of us to go outside at a time while Dante and Cackler are looking for us, so we might as well spend this time getting as familiar with Henosia and Wilde’s notes as possible.

 

“Always did have a knack for studying,” Judy beamed with pride.

 

“Better put to those skills to use then, Carrots,” Nick grinned. “We’ve got the next few days to learn everything there is to know about this place, and then we're off to find the long lost city of Henosia!”

 

With that, Finnick lit up another cigar as the three of them began pouring over the notes and documents, studying long into the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so there we go, another chapter done! Sorry if it was a bit heavy on dialogue and exposition, had to have at some point, but I hope I managed to keep things interesting enough. 
> 
> Interesting little note, I based the Great Collapse after a similar event referred to as the Bronze Age Collapse which was what caused the end o the Bronze Age. Similarly, nobody knows what actually happened, just that it brought a very sudden and violent end to the empires and civilizations of the time, although unlike in my version, the Stone Age came first. 
> 
> Anyways, that's all for now, thanks for taking the check out my fic. And until next time, Sic Parvis Magna!


	8. Marian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey again! Back with another chapter. No chapter splitting mishaps this time around, so let's get right to it and see how that whole trip to Henosia thing goes!

“Uuuuugh! Finally!” the rabbit groaned, rolling her head from side to side as she stretched her limbs to get all the kinks out. “It’s so good to actually be able to see the sun again. If I spent another minute cooped up in that crummy motel room, I swear I’d have completely lost my mind.”

 

“And I believe you one hundred percent when you say that, Fluff,” Nick said with a stretch and a yawn. “You seriously looked like you were about to kick a hole in the wall.”

 

“Yeah, well...I don't handle confinement well...Need to be able to jump around, get those muscles moving,” Judy explained lightly bouncing on her feet. “How long has it been, anyway?”

 

“About four days,” Nick answered.

 

“Really?” Judy shook her head in near-disbelief. “Wow...it felt so much longer…”

 

“Yeah...laying low can really suck,” Nick agreed. “But hey, at least you’ve developed a newfound appreciation for Finn’s stories.”

 

“Whoa now, I’ll admit they went a long way towards helping with the boredom,” the rabbit conceded. “But that doesn't mean I want to hear any more of them. I mean bucking broccoli, some of those stories were way too vivid! That was way more than I ever needed to know about mammal anatomy, let alone wanted to!”

 

The doe shuddered briefly as some of Finnick’s more...detailed...accounts flashed through her memory. “I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at a pretzel the same way again…”

 

“Hey, at least you got some nice laughs out of it. Besides, you'll forget all about those sordid details once Marian gets us to Henosia and the real work starts," the fox pointed out as they finally reached the docks. "But best look alive for now, lest we get trampled before we even meet up with her."

 

The docks were a chaotic flurry of ships, mammals, and machinery of all types and sizes heading in every direction. It had been somewhat busy when they first limped into the docks several days earlier, but this was something else entirely. It was probably as busy as that street Nick had chased Judy through when they first arrived, but with even less space to move around. Above all of the chaos, they could see Finnick standing on top of a pile crates, his large ears twitching as he looked back and forth, surveying the area.

 

“Don’t tell me you lost her, Gramps,” Nick called out to the older fox.

 

“Don’t be an ass, of course I didn’t lose her,” Finnick shot back. “Just trying to figure out the best way through this mess without getting flattened by some asshole who isn't paying attention.”

 

The old fox looked around for another minute or so before he jumped down from the boxes, certain he'd found the best path to take. He started moving through the controlled chaos before him, calling for Nick and Judy to follow. “Over this way, and watch your step, most of these guys won't notice or care if you're in their way."

 

"You're exaggerating, right?" Judy asked uncertainly. "There's no way the mammals out here would be  _that_ callous."

 

"Oh, sweet, innocent little bunny," Nick laughed as he walked ahead. "How little you know about the world."

 

"Just be careful," Finnick cautioned. "We'd hardly be the first mammals around here to wind up being scraped off the bottom of some megafauna's foot."

 

There was a sudden high pitched squeak from behind, both foxes turning to see Judy narrowly dodge out of the way of a rhino dock worker carrying a massive wooden crate. The rhino merely looked back at the bunny and gave her a dismissive snort as she scampered away.

 

“What did I _just_ say, bunny?” Finnick chuckled.

 

“Better be careful, Fluff, dreams are hardly the only thing to be crushed out here,” Nick smugly grinned.

 

“Glad to see you both find this so funny,” Judy said, shooting them both a withering glare.

 

Nick just shook his head with a light laugh, “Well, just try not to get stepped on for a little bit longer, we’re nearly there.”

 

It was an arduous task to navigate the crowds safely, but Finnick made sure to steer clear of the larger mammals, or at the very least, the ones who weren't watching their step. Eventually, they managed to reach the edge of the docks where there was far less frantic activity going on. A number of seaplanes were moored to their pier with small teams of mammals tending to the maintenance and preparation of some of them.

 

“There she is!” Finnick announced.

 

“Where?” the rabbit asked, looking around in confusion. There were a number of other mammals; pilots, mechanics, dockworkers, and the like, but none of them were female.

 

“Right there,” Finnick pointed at an old twin-engined Gurrmam G-21 Goose seaplane sitting at the edge of one of the piers. It looked pretty beaten up from years of operation but was clearly well maintained. It was painted a metallic white with red trim on the wings, engines, nose, and windows. Far more interesting, though, was the image painted on the side of the fuselage right between the nose and the cockpit. It was of a rather sultry looking grey-furred vixen sporting a red one piece and a smile that could be best described as somewhere between mischevious and flirtatious. She was leaning slightly back with a Hoophson submachine gun held upward in her right paw. To the right of her was a single word painted on the fuselage: 'Marian.'

 

“Oh…” Judy said, her head tilting to the side.

 

Finnick's ears dipped a bit in disappointment at seeing the bunny's less than excited response. “Not what you were expecting, huh? Guess she is getting pretty up there in years now.”

 

“What? Oh no, it’s not that, it’s fine, really!” Judy anxiously tried to correct, shaking her head with worry that she might have offended the desert fox.

 

“Don’t bother trying to coddle me, bunny, I’ve seen that look enough times to know what it means. You're hardly the first gal who didn't like the first impression,” Finnick said, a cocky grin curling up his muzzle. “But don't worry, I always manage to get 'em to come around in the end.”

 

“Oh geez, no more stories, please, that’s now what I meant!” Judy almost shrieked, wrapping her ears around her face in an attempt to hide the pink glow beneath her fur. “When Nick called her your sweetheart, I thought he meant we were meeting a vixen or something.”

 

“Oh she’s one hell of a vixen, believe me,” Finnick remarked, banging his paw against the metal to emphasise his point. “She may not look like much, but trust me, the old girl’s got it where it counts. Will be a couple of days, but she’ll get us to Henosia, no problem.”

 

The diminutive fox walked over to a two-part hatch, pulling both halves open. “Come on,” he waved the other two over. “Waste too much time out here and we're likely to be spotted by some Coastline asshole, wouldn’t put it past ‘em to have teams watching most of the docks in the region.”

 

The three of them stepped through the hatch and into the plane itself, setting their gear and supplies down in the back. The interior was pretty barebones, a dull grey frame with lined metal and a few rigid seats with very basic padding. It wasn’t going to be a comfortable flight, but it would suit their purposes just fine.

 

Nick and Judy got their gear and supplies strapped in place at the back while Finnick went over the pre-flight checks and prepared for takeoff. As Nick finished and made his way to the cockpit, he noticed the smaller fox had ceased his activity and was just staring out the window.

 

“What’s up, Gramps?”

 

“Those two, over there,” Finnick answered, his gaze fixed on a pair of mammals outside. “They’ve been staring at Marian ever since we got here.”

 

Nick looked out the window at the pair Finnick had pointed out. The mammals in question were an oryx and a pronghorn wearing shorts and t-shirts. The oryx wore a blue shirt while the pronghorn wore a red one. Despite what Finnick had said, neither of them was looking their way. If anything it looked like they were having an argument as each took it in turn to shove the other. Unable to hear what they were saying, Nick moved to the hatch and popped the top half open to listen in.

 

“- _ou_ shut up!”

 

“ _You_ shut up!”

 

“ _You_ shut up!”

 

“ _You_ shu-”

 

_*SLAM*_

 

“Alright, think I’ve heard just about enough of that,” Nick concluded as he pulled the hatch shut and dusted off his paws. “Not an issue, just some idiot tourists by the looks of it. Jeez, you’d think they were an old married couple or something, the way they were going at it.”

 

“You don’t think they’re Coastline?” Finnick asked. "I'll admit, they don't exactly seem like they have it together..."

 

“I may not be much of an expert on spying,” Judy added. “But I’d think even Coastline would be more subtle than those guys.” She jerked a thumb out the window back at the two mammals who had since moved on from shoving to clumsily locking horns.

 

“I dunno,” Finnick said hesitatingly, watching the two prey as their fight quickly took a turn for the embarrassing once they realized they were caught on each other's horns and began awkwardly trying to pry each other loose. “Why else would they be eyeballing Marian like that?”

 

“Come on, Gramps, with the kind of shit you like to paint on this plane, it’s a miracle every mammal in the docks isn’t staring at us right now,” Nick smirked.

 

“Not my fault they can’t appreciate quality art,” Finnick shrugged.

 

“Yeah, yeah, only the best for your baby,” Nick rolled his eyes, strapping into the co-pilot seat. “Buckle up, Carrots, I think it’s about time we headed on out of here.”

 

"Uhh, what about those two?" Judy asked. Pointing back at the two mammals still struggling to separate themselves. "Should we lend a paw or something before this spat of theirs draws the wrong kind of attention?"

 

"Nah, they look like they've got it under control," Nick said with a chuckle as the oryx pulled a bit too hard and finally managed to break free, only to go tumbling over the edge of the dock and splash into the murky water below. It took a moment for the pronghorn to realize what had just happened before rushing over in alarm. He tried to pull the oryx back up, only to wind up tumbling into the water along with his friend/enemy...they couldn't quite figure out which one they were.

 

Seeing that the situation had sorted itself out, Judy shrugged and strapped herself into one of the side seats behind the cockpit while Nick looked over the coordinates they had acquired from the temple and pinpointed their location on the map for Finnick.

 

“Should take us about a day or two to get out there, made sure we have enough fuel in the back for the return trip, too, so shouldn't wind up crashing into the ocean if all things go as planned. Now come on, time to get your tails in gear and watch this girl in action.” Finnick flipped several switches and hit the ignition. The propellers began to spin as the engines started firing up and built to a nice consistent roar. This lasted for all of a few seconds before they started sputtering and choking, finally dying down to an awkward silence.

 

“Uhhh...is it supposed to do that?” Judy asked in a concerned tone.

 

“I think Marian might’ve finally had it, Gramps.”

 

“Nah, she’s fine,” Finnick dismissed, reaching for a wrench. “She just needs a little love tap to get going is all.” He opened the side window and swung the wrench hard against the engine, a harsh clanging of metal against metal ringing throughout the plane. It seemed to do the trick though as the engines started sputtering and fired up again, the propellers spinning up until they were back at a consistent roar.

 

“See?” Finnick laughed in triumph. “What did I tell you?”

 

“That...should not have worked…” Judy muttered in disbelief.

 

“And yet it did, Fluff,” Nick called back. “You really need to learn not to question the good things."

 

"The last time I didn't question the 'good thing,' it ended with Coastline trying to kill us," Judy snapped back.

 

"Oh right...it did...but hey, we survived didn't we?" Nick awkwardly tried to justify, with the rabbit only staring in relatively tense silence, or at least as silent as it could be with a pair of engines roaring in the background. 

 

“...I'm just gonna go ahead and get us out of here before you say something even dumber, Kid,” Finnick grumbled.

 

"Yeah...probably a good idea..." Nick winced, his ears and tail dipping slightly in embarrassment.

 

Shaking his head, Finnick started to guide the plane away from the dock and got into position for takeoff. Once he was properly lined up, Finnick began accelerating the seaplane forward, the whine of the engines increasing in pitch as the plane continued to gain speed until it finally lifted off from the sea and became airborne. Looking down, the three of them saw the ships and docks, they all looked so small against the wide expanse of the ocean, and only shrunk further as the plane gained altitude. 

 

“Look out at all of that, Carrots” Nick called out, staring down at the endless blue of the ocean as it practically glittered under the sun. "Tell me this isn't the kind of thing you become an adventurer for!"

 

“It's so amazing from up here,” Judy gasped, staring down in awe at the sight below her.

 

“And it'll only get even more amazing from here on out,” Nick boasted. “Now get ready Henosia, we're on our way!”

 

* * *

 

**Two Days Later**

 

“We’re on the trail of Sir Francis Wilde's final expedition and it has led us here, to this small island chain all the way out in the middle of the Dakashi Ocean,” Judy narrated for her camera, facing it towards the approaching chain of islands partially obscured by low hanging clouds.

 

“Let’s get a closer look,” Nick suggested, turning to face the camera as the rabbit pointed it at him. "Just hope we're the first ones here."

 

“We better be,” Finnick growled, keeping his gaze focused ahead even as Judy panned the camera over to him. “If those idiots turned out to be Coastline after all and Marian gets shot up because of it, I'm gonna bite your tail off."

 

“Whats this? A threat to bite off something _other_ than my face?” Nick smirked. “Nice work, Gramps, way to get those creative juices flowing and show some real originality.”

 

“Guess I can edit that part out,” Judy quietly chuckled to herself before turning the Pandasonic camera on herself and continuing the narration. “Will we discover the lost ruins of an ancient civilization predating the stone age and a fortune in forgotten treasure? Or do the islands have darker secrets in store for us?”

 

“There we go,” the rabbit said as she shut off the camera. “That should keep them hanging on for more.”

 

“You know, you’re pretty good at the upsell, Fluff,” Nick remarked. “I bet you’d make quite the hustler if you put your mind to it.”

 

“Thanks, but I think I’m doing just fine where I am,” Judy responded. “I’m looking to actually make a difference in the world, not swindle mammals out of their money.”

 

“Yeah, never been big on that sort of thing either,” the fox agreed. “Had the potential, probably would’ve been quite good at it had things gone a different way. No big loss though, I’d rather be out in the jungle or jumping around old ruins searching for treasure than on the street hustling some poor saps for a quick buck any day of the week.”

 

“You know, if you ever did decide to hustle, I could imagine you and Finn doing some sort of father/son routine,” Judy suggested. “Have Finnick dress up in a costume, give him a pacifier, it’d be perfect!”

 

Given the low growls and angry looks Finnick was throwing in their direction, it was obvious he didn't approve. But Nick decided to keep prodding anyways. “Might need to dye over the grey in his fur, but yeah, I think he'd do great in a little elephant costume.”

 

Judy burst out laughing at that image. “I can see it now, sweet little ol’ Finnny, wants to be an elephant when he grows up! You’d hear the awww’s from a block away.”

 

“What do you say to that, Gramps?” Nick mockingly asked. “I think you’d make a great elephant!”

 

“How about this?" Finnick answered, scowling menacingly at both of them. "If you two don’t shut up right now, then I'm gonna set Marian down early make you both swim the rest of the way! How does that sound?"

 

“Alright, alright, point taken, we’ll leave the grumpy old fox alone,” Nick relented. “Come on Carrots, let's go back and check the supplies.”

 

The fox and rabbit left the cockpit and took a quick stock of their supplies, confirming there was enough to last for a few days on the island as well as the return trip. Since they still had some time before Finnick would land the plane, they decided to sit down on a set of passenger seats and stare out one of the side windows at the approaching island chain.

 

Nick focused his gaze on the largest island, looking for any sign of ruins in the distance. With Judy being silent and no other noise besides the constant roar of the engines and the rushing of wind as it whipped past the plane, Nick found himself lost in thought as he stared out at their destination.

 

 _So this is the supposed resting place of Henosia, original Zootopia and pinnacle of a pre-stone age society_. _What was it you and the Blackhorn Empire were looking for out here, Wilde? Treasure? Knowledge? Something else, entirely? And why keep the expedition a secret? What was so important that you couldn’t let anybody else know about this place?_

 

“So what’s so special about that ring?” the rabbit asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.

 

“Hmm?”

 

“The ring,” Judy repeated, nodding at the round piece of metal tied around the fox’s neck. “The one you’re always holding. That somebody special?”

 

Nick looked down, finally noticing the ring he'd been rubbing with his thumb. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't even realized he'd been doing it until the reporter pointed it out. 

 

“Oh...ya...I guess that’s one way of putting it…” he finally answered.

 

“Huh…” Judy muttered in thought. “Guess it’s true what they say about foxes mating for life.”

 

“Be sure to tell Gramps that,” Nick chuckled. “He seems to have missed the memo.”

 

Finnick just took one look back at Nick and Judy with a brief glare before shaking his head and turning his attention back to the cockpit.

 

“No, this was Francis Wilde’s ring,” Nick explained. “I guess you could say I…'inherited’ it.”

 

“‘Inherited,’ huh?” Judy noted curiously. “I bet there’s quite the story behind that.”

 

“Oh there is, Carrots, believe me,” Nick responded. “Maybe I’ll even tell you someday if you decide to stick around.”

 

“I guess we’ll just have to wait and see,” the reporter said with a sly smile as she leaned over and grabbed the ring out of Nick's paw, pulling it towards her.

 

“Ack!” the fox gagged as he was pulled along for the ride. “Easy there, bunny, I’ve still got this thing tied around my neck! You've walloped me enough times already, I don't need you adding strangling to the list!”

 

“Oh don’t be such a baby,” Judy teased. “I just want to take a closer look.”

 

The doe peered closely at the ring, looking over every bit of its silver inlay design. One particular thing that caught her attention was the phrase inscribed on the outside, she narrowed her eyes as she focused on it, reading every word out loud. 

 

“‘Sic...Parvis...Magna.’”

 

“‘Greatness from small beginnings,’” Nick translated, beaming as he did. “That was his motto.”

 

“Seems like a rather fitting motto for a fox thief to live by,” the reporter grinned. “Puts a nice positive spin on what you do.”

 

“Treasure hunter, Fluff,” Nick corrected. “Though I can't blame you for mixing up the two. The differences are subtle, easy to confuse.”

 

Judy rolled her eyes. “Very subtle, in fact, one’d probably be forgiven for saying there aren’t any.”

 

“Ouch,” the fox gasped in mock sadness, placing a paw over his heart. “Why do you always have to go after my integrity like that?”

 

“Just trying to keep that ego of yours in check,” Judy smirked as she took a closer look at the ring, feeling it with her fingers until she noticed something. “Hey, what’s with the markings on the inside?”

 

“Those? Oh nothing important,” Nick answered as with a sly grin. “Just a little cipher used to translate all of Wilde’s notes.”

 

“Really? No kidding…” the reporter mumbled to herself. “I was wondering if it was just your ego talking when you said Dante wouldn’t have been able to figure out Wilde’s notes without you. But then I tried reading them back at the motel and it all looked like a bunch of gibberish. But if those notes were in code...”

 

“Then Dante wouldn’t have been able to figure it out,” Nick finished for the rabbit, grabbing the ring back and holding it up in his paw. “Not without this little beauty.”

 

“See, Wilde was always one to play his cards close to the chest. Probably why he wrote his notes in code to begin with. Wanted to make sure nobody else could make use of it without him knowing," the fox explained. "He probably knew that wherever this expedition took him, it would lead to something big. And with the Blackhorn Empire hot on his tail, he couldn’t risk letting his research fall into the wrong paws. Probably had his notes and ring sent away, made sure to keep them out of reach of the wrong mammals but still leave a trail of clues behind just in case.”

 

“For someone clever enough to figure it out,” Judy gathered. “Somebody like a certain sly fox.”

 

“Ah gee, Carrots, you’re gonna make me blush,” Nick smiled. “I didn’t know you thought so highly of me.”

 

“Oh no, I was talking about Finnick,” Judy answered with a smug smile of her own, barely containing her laughter as she saw the unimpressed look Nick was giving her now. “But then, you're pretty sly too, Slick Nick.”

 

“Oh wow, 'Slick Nick', how very clever of you," Nick jabbed sarcastically. " _Really_ putting that wit of yours to good use."

 

He took a moment to look back down at the ring in his paw before turning his attention back to Judy.

 

"You know, that saying wouldn’t be such a bad motto for you either,” he suggested.

 

“Really?” Judy asked, her head tilted to the side.

 

“Sure, farmer’s daughter from the sticks, teaches herself bun fu or whatever and sets out to makes one of the greatest discoveries in mammalian history while beating a bunch of Coastline idiots senseless along the way? If that doesn’t have ‘Sic Parvis Magna’ written all over it, then I don’t know what does.”

 

Judy couldn't help but giggle at the fox's rather succinct summary of her life. “Sounds like a made for TV movie right there, that’s for sure. Just one mistake though, I didn’t teach myself how to fight, not entirely, anyway.”

 

“Oh? Can’t say I’m surprised. You seem like you know your way out around a brawl or two, but I had a hard time imagining a farmer's daughter turned reporter learning that sort of thing on her own,” Nick pondered as he flicked his tail against the seat. “Where’d you learn to fight like that, then? Kickboxing ring? Martial arts studio?”

 

“Police academy, actually,” the bunny answered.

 

Nick's ears flicked in surprise. “Police academy?”

 

“I wasn’t always a reporter,” she explained. “I actually used to be a cop in Zootopia.”

 

“Really? You, a cop?” Nick asked. “I wasn’t expecting that.”

 

“Always wanted to be one, ever since I could remember,” Judy said, a touch of nostalgia in her voice. “Just wanted to help mammals and make the world a better place.”

 

“Huh, well how about that..." Nick mused, trying to imagine her in a police uniform. "I don’t mean to prod, but given how you’re out here in the middle of the ocean searching for a lost city instead of chasing perps on the streets of Zootopia, I’m guessing things didn’t work out.”

 

Judy's ears drooped behind her and there was a look of mild sadness in her eyes. Nick couldn't help but wonder if maybe he'd just opened some old wounds of hers.

 

“That’s one way of putting it,” she answered sadly. “Did manage to achieve my dream...for two days…”

 

“Yikes, and I thought _I’d_ make a lousy cop,” Nick winced.

 

“I was hired right after graduation, top of my class” the reporter started to explain. “But it was obvious the chief didn’t want me, stuck me on parking duty right off the bat and made it clear I was never going to go anywhere else.”

 

“Wait, they made you a meter maid?” Nick asked with a chuckle. “What, with the little hat and the vest and everything?”

 

The idea of the bunny in a vest and hat zipping around the streets of Zootopia struggling to jump high enough to jam tickets on car windshields was too much for the treasure hunter and he burst out laughing, much to the reporter's chagrin.

 

“Oh mam, that must’ve been precious,” he snickered. “You must’ve looked so cu-” he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the deadly glare Judy was now pointing his way.

 

“Uhh...p-professional, y-y-yeah, professional” Nick stammered out, faking a cough as he did. “I was gonna say you must’ve looked so...professional...”

 

_Nice save, idiot._

 

“You finished?” Judy asked in an irritated tone.

 

“Yeah,” Nick awkwardly answered. “Sorry…”

 

“Anyways…” Judy continued with a shake of her head. “There was a robbery right on the street I was working, so I jumped in and tried to stop it. Managed to catch the guy but the chief was furious at me for abandoning my post.”

 

A nervous look crept across the rabbit as she continued the story, “Well that...and...some other things I’d rather not get into. Anyways, that was one of the reasons I was fired in the end.”

 

“What was the other?” Nick asked.

 

“Insubordination,” Judy answered. “The chief didn’t appreciate me trying to go over his head when I offered to help on some missing mammal case, sent me packing after that and it was all over...”

 

“Huh...no good deed unpunished…” Nick remarked.

 

"I don't know," the rabbit doubted. "I was proud and impatient, I can't help but wonder if maybe things would've been different if I just kept a cool head and waited..."

 

"Nah, don't think like that. Fortune favours the bold after all, it's how a treasure hunter thinks, and I'd like to think it's how a good cop thinks," Nick offered. "Anyways, how'd your parents react? They're close, right? Disappointed to hear you got fired from your dream job?"

 

“Actually, they were thrilled,” Judy said. “They never wanted me to be a cop, thought it was too dangerous. They probably thought I was going to come back home and work the carrot farm instead.”

 

“Again, you're here instead of pulling carrots out of the ground in some farm county, so I’m guessing that’s not what happened, either,” Nick speculated.

 

“Obviously not,” Judy smiled. “Had a minor in journalism that I was able to leverage into a job as a reporter for _Animalia Explorer_. Mam, they were not happy when I dropped that news.”

 

“Sorry to hear the road has been so rough,” Nick said, feeling a bit guilty after hearing her story. “I know I sure as hell haven’t made things easy for you.”

 

“Yeah, well, things haven't exactly gone the way I hoped they would,” Judy remarked. “But hey, glass half full, at least I still get to do incredible things, right? Explore the world, discover long lost ruins, beat up some bad guys. Definitely beats working on the carrot farm. And I get to do some good as well, even if it’s not the way I wanted to.”

 

“Honestly, it’s probably for the best,” Nick said. “You can actually make something of yourself out here, rather than waste your life passing out parking tickets.”

 

“Waste my life?!?! Now wait just a minute!" the rabbit objected. "I’ll admit things have gone a bit askew, but that doesn’t mean I’ve given up on Zootopia! It may not happen right away, but I will go back there one day and try again!”

 

“Why even bother?” Nick challenged. “Zootopia was holding you back, that’s what it does to mammals like us! If you don’t play by their rules, the city crushes you, it doesn't tolerate free thinkers. This type of life though? Out here? This is made for mammals like us! It's where we belong!”

 

“Come on, Nick, it’s not as bad as you're making it out to be,” Judy reasoned. “Zootopia is proof of what mammals can accomplish when they put aside their differences and work towards something greater. It’s those old legends like Henosia made real, a place where anyone can be anything.”

 

“If that was really true, you’d be a cop right now instead of out here in the middle of the ocean looking for the ruins of a city built on the exact same lie as Zootopia,” Nick countered. “These so-called 'paradises,' where mammals can achieve their dreams and be whatever they want? Where prey and predator live in harmony and sing ‘Kumbayah?’ They're all lies, nobody really gets along and nobody actually cares about you or your dreams! Cities like those are where dreams go to die. They're not the paradises ignorant mammals think they are, they just happen to be run by mammals with a talent for pedaling crap as if it was gold!”

 

“Out here though,” he argued, spreading his arms wide to emphasize his point, “you _can_ pursue your dreams! There’s no stubborn chiefs set in their ways here, no overprotective parents, no condescending mammals that will see you as nothing more than a meek little bunny! Out here, if you want to do something, you can, no stupid rules or systemic prejudices to hold you back! You say in Zootopia, anyone can be anything? I say that couldn't be farther from the truth! All of this, though? Out here? This is the real Zootopia, where you can actually live your dream! Out here, anybody _truly_ can be anything!"

 

“This is your dream? This is the life you envision for yourself?” Judy asked incredulously. “That’s insane, Nick. Zootopia may not be perfect, but at least there, you can live your life without having to worry about getting shot or gutted by somebody just because you’re in their way or they thought you looked at them funny. I mean cheese and crackers, we have an entire mercenary company trying to kill us! And from the stories you and Finn tell, this isn’t even the first time something like this has happened. How can you seriously think this is any kind of life to aspire to?”

 

“It may be a dangerous life, Fluff,” Nick said. “But as far as I’m concerned, it’s the only one worth living. Out here, you’re defined by how good you are, and how lucky you are, not by your species. If you can’t do something, it’s not because you’re ‘just a shifty low-life fox,’ or a 'cute little bunny,' it’s because you just aren’t good enough. It's as simple as that. It truly is the great equalizer, more than Zootopia ever would be. I mean sure, it's pretty common for mammals to kill or cross each other out here, but at least it isn't because of what species they are.”

 

“Okay, I’ll admit that foxes get an unfair rap, I’ve had a mindset in the past that certainly didn't help things,” Judy conceded. “But a fox shouldn’t be on equal footing just because every other mammal in the room is equally likely to stab you in the back, that’s a hard way to live your life, and a lonely one too.”

 

“Yeah, well... I tried to do things your way once,” Nick said, his ears and tail slumping slightly. “I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say you’re hardly the first one to be told ‘no’ just because of your species.”

 

Nick turned around and stared out the window at the approaching isle. Kicking himself over the sharp turn the conversation had taken.

 

_Dammit, it was just supposed to be a little chit chat... How the hell did you let it get so real?_

 

His self chasting was interrupted, though, by a soft paw resting on his shoulder.

 

“Nick,” Judy gently spoke. “Listen...I-”

 

_*BOOM*_

 

Nick barely even had time to even register the sound of whatever had been speeding toward the seaplane before it exploded against the hull. The blast rocked the entire plane, knocking Nick off his seat and sending him tumbling to the ground.

 

“Cheesy Pete's, what was that?” he heard Judy yell in surprise somewhere to his left. He looked over and saw the rabbit pulling herself up and rushing to the cockpit.

 

“Anti-aircraft fire?” Nick guessed as he struggled to make his way back to the cockpit, only to be nearly thrown off his feet again as the plane was rocked by a series of blasts.

 

“Mam, this is _so_ not cool!” he yelled in frustration and panic as he grabbed onto the back of the pilot's seat. “Finn, what’s going on?”

 

“What the hell do you think? Some asshole’s using us for target practice,” Finnick shouted as he fought to keep the plane under control.

 

“Well, where’s it coming from?” Nick shouted, frantically searching for the source of the flak that was lighting up their airspace.

 

“Down there!” Judy yelled, her face pressed against the side windshield and her ears swiveling in the same direction as she focused on the water below.

 

The treasure hunter looked down and saw a number of patrol boats close together around one of the smaller islands. They looked like some sort of scouting party, several of them with flak guns strapped to their decks that were firing on the plane's position. Even from so high up, Nick could make out a symbol painted on the hull of some of the ships. An inverted triangle segmented into three smaller ones that were red, white, and black in colour. Nick knew that symbol, and it was one that spelled bad news for the three of them.

 

_Coastline...shit…_

 

His thoughts were cut short as they were was rocked by another direct hit, Finnick gripping the pilot joystick hard as he tried to keep the plane steady.

 

“Seriously!?!?” Nick yelled as he caught onto the frame of the cockpit doorway to keep from falling over. “What kind of asshole brings AA guns on a damn treasure hunt?”

 

“Gree, I don’t know, Kid,” Finnick yelled over the exploding flak. “Maybe the kind that knew the competition would be flying in on a godsdamn plane?!?!”

 

“Hey, this isn’t my fault!” Nick defended himself, trying to ignore the fact that it probably was, in fact, his fault.

 

“Then why don't you explain to me how the hell they get the drop on us?!?!” Finnick shot back as he struggled against the joystick gripped in his paws. “Because they sure as hell didn’t stumble onto us by accident all the way out in the middle of nowhere!”

 

“Uhh...guys?” Judy jumped in, her paws gripping firmly to the copilot seat as if she were holding on for dear life. “Maybe spend less time arguing and more time getting us away from those guns!?!?”

 

“What the hell do you think I’ve been trying to do, bunny?!?!” Finnick snapped back as he pulled hard on the stick, trying to get the plane out of the line of fire. The plane protested and Nick felt a lurch in his stomach from the sudden shift in altitude, but the plane kept climbing, rocking and shaking every time the flak cannons struck too close for comfort.

 

“Godsdamn Coastline assholes!” Finnick yelled at the boats below. “Stop shooting up my baby!”

 

The flak finally ceased as they flew out of range and Finnick started to even the plane out. The relief was short-lived, however, as the roar of the engines was interrupted by a worrisome sputtering.

 

An encroaching sense of dread started to wash over Nick. “That better not be what I think it is…”

 

“Uhh...guys?” Judy called out, pointing at the stream of flames that were now trailing from the starboard engine. “We’re on fire!”

 

The engine continued to struggle before finally dying out completely as the propeller blades slowed to a crawl.

 

“Oh, that's not good…” Nick muttered, pretty certain what was coming next.

 

“Dammit, she ain’t gonna hold,” Finnick growled as he smacked the instrument panel in frustration. “We gotta bail out, now!”

 

“Bail out?!?!” a shocked Judy echoed. “Does this thing even have parachutes?!?!”

 

“Please tell me you didn’t skimp on those, Gramps!”

 

“Of course it has parachutes, what kind of dumbass do you take me for?” Finnick growled. “They’re in the back.”

 

Nick and Judy both made their way to the back of the plane, holding onto the interior frame to steady themselves. It wasn't enough to keep them steady though when the starboard engine suddenly exploded and violently rocked the plane, throwing both of them into the metal floor with a thud.

 

Finnick managed to keep the plane from rolling into a spiral dive, but the force of the explosion was still enough to cause the plane's hatch to tear loose. Nick managed to look up just in time to see it tear away from the hull and tumble through the air and out of sight.

 

Nick grasped the frame of a passenger seat with one paw and Judy with the other, making sure neither of them was about to take a surprise tumble out of the newly formed hole in the plane as he carefully pulled his way towards the parachutes attached to the back wall, his fur being blown in all directions by the wind the whole time. He quickly grabbed a small pack and passed it to Judy and then grabbed another one for Finnick as well as a larger one for himself. 

 

“These better work, Gramps!” Nick yelled as he and Judy made their way back to the cockpit, placing a parachute on the seat next to Finnick for him to put on. 

 

“Guess we’ll find out in a second,” the older fox responded, looking over at the parachute briefly before returning his focus to his steadily losing battle for control of the plane.

 

Nick bent down to the seat Judy was holding onto and helped her strap on her parachute.

 

“You ever done this sort of thing before?” the rabbit asked when it was fully strapped on, looking up at the fox anxiously.

 

_No…_

 

“Of course!” he lied as he started putting on his own parachute. “You just jump, count to five, and pull the cord! Now get going!”

 

Judy half crawled over to the gaping hole where the hatch had been, her ears and fur flapping against the wind. She nearly froze when she looked out of the opening and down at the jungle far below.

 

“Oh cheese and crackers…”

 

“You’ve got this,” Nick shouted. “Don’t think about it, just jump!”

 

She turned back to look at Nick, her nose twitching with anxiety. “See you guys on the ground?”

 

“We’re right behind you,” Nick nodded.

 

She still looked anxious, but the rabbit managed to nod firmly before gripping her camera tightly to her side and leaping out the blown hatch. Nick held his breath as he watched her fall further and further away until her chute finally opened up.

 

With the reporter safely off the plane, Nick started making his way forward to position himself at the exit. He looked out at the jungle below, feeling a deep pit in his stomach that probably wasn’t too dissimilar from what the bunny had been feeling a few moments earlier.

 

Turning to look back at Finnick, he noticed that the smaller fox was still in the pilot seat, his parachute untouched.

 

“Gramps!” Nick called out. “Come on, we gotta go!”

 

“You get outta here, Kid!” Finnick called back, turning around to check that Nick was next to the exit and ready. “I’ll be right behind you.”

 

“Marian’s done for, Gramps!” Nick yelled in frustration. “Just pull the autopilot and get your chute on so we can get the hell out of here!”

 

“I don’t know if you’re aware, Kid, but that damn thing wasn’t designed to keep Marian steady when one of her engines has gone up in godsdamn fireball!” the desert fox shouted. “If my baby’s going down, I’d rather keep her airborne long enough for you to get your worthless tail off of it first!”

 

“Dammit, Finn, now’s not the time!” Nick shouted.

 

“Exactly! Now get going, or we’ll both be dead for sure!” Finnick argued before turning back and focusing on trying to keep the plane as steady as possible.

 

“I’m not leaving you behind!” Nick yelled in frustration.

 

“Hey, Nick?”

 

“What?” Nick called back, a bit caught off guard by Finn using his actual name for once, but still running out of patience.

 

“You got your parachute strapped on?”

 

“Of course I do!” the red fox answered, not sure where his partner was going with this.

 

“Good.” 

 

Suddenly, the plane rolled to the left and Nick was sent tumbling out the blown hatch towards the island jungle below.

 

“Son of a biiiiiiiiitch!”

 

The fox ignored the advice he'd given the reporter, scrambling to pull the chord for his chute as fast as possible.

 

Nick grunted in pain as he felt the harness press hard into his body when the parachute released and caught the air. He looked down at the jungle below and realized something was wrong. His descent had been slowed, sure, but he was still moving fast, way too fast. He looked back up and that pit in his stomach returned when he saw that his parachute had an uncomfortably large tear in it.

 

“Dammit Gramps…” he mumbled before looking back down at the rapidly approaching trees.

 

Well, this was it, he’d done everything he could but the situation was out of his paws now. There was only one thing left for him to do.

 

Panic.

 

“Oh, crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap! Crap!”

 

His flailed panicking came to an abrupt end as he crashed into the jungle canopy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Damn, and things were going so well for them. Now they're stranded on a strange island, separated, being hunted by a bunch of armed killers, and Finn's gotta make good on his threat to bite off Nick's tail now. All in all, not exactly the best position for them to be in. Also got a nice little appearance by everybody's favorite dysfunctional...couple? (You'll have to get back to me on that one, I have no idea what they're actually supposed to be in the movie. Oh well, good thing I don't have to worry about addressing that.) And hey, for the people that didn't know what it meant before, now you know what all that ring and "Sic Parvis Magna" business was about!
> 
> Interesting little tidbits, Finn's seaplane is based on the Grumman G-21 Goose, which is the seaplane Sully flys in the Uncharted series, although in that version, it's called the Wild Hog. Another interesting note, since it was briefly mentioned in the chapter, the first autopilot was developed in 1912 and was a gyroscopic heading and altitude indicator connected to hydraulically operated elevators and rudders that acted to maintain a plane's direction and altitude. A more compact version was developed in 1930, and since the Grumman G-21 Goose first flew in 1937, it's not unreasonable to assume that Marian would have one as well.
> 
> Anyways, with that chapter, we bring the first act of the story to a close. What mishaps and secrets await our trio now that they've finally made it to the island? Will Dante and Coastline continue to pose a threat to them? (Hint: Yes) Guess we'll have to find out next time. Until then, Sic Parvis Magna!


	9. Marooned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woohoo! It's been a crazy busy day, but I managed to squeeze in enough time to finally get this next chapter up and posted! Sorry for taking so much longer with this one, it ended up being one of the harder chapters to write, still, feels good to be done with it. Anyways, time to kick off the start of the second act, hope you guys enjoy it!

Darkness...flashes of light and faded images...the musky smell of earth and tropical plants...the chirping and calls of wildlife, they all assaulted Nick's senses relentlessly as he drifted in and out of consciousness. He wasn't sure how long this went on for, but after entirely too many nonsensical visions, he finally managed to force his eyes open. Everything was a blur as he struggled to adjust to the bright light now assaulting him as he came to.

 

 _Huh...wha...what happened?_ The fox either muttered or thought, he was too disoriented to tell. The last thing he remembered was clouds...an island...and then fire...followed by falling. He tried to let out an exhausted groan, only to be surprised when his mouth refused to budge. 

 

_Wait...I can’t open my mouth...why can’t I open my mouth?!?!_

 

He pawed at his face, trying to figure out what was wrong. He felt something wrapped entirely around his mouth, constricting all movement.

 

_What the hell is it? Is it a muzzle? It’s a muzzle, isn’t it?!?! Oh gods! Muzzle! Get it off! Get it off!_

 

The fox launched into a panic, thrashing around as he tried to pry and claw at whatever had wrapped his mouth shut. He finally managed to grip something in his paws only to realize that it couldn't have been a muzzle, it didn't have the same harsh, constricting feel that had inspired so much dread in him in the past. Looking down, he noticed that it was some sort of lightweight rope.

 

_What the? Is that...a cord?_

 

That’s when it all came racing back to him. The plane, the island, Coastline ambushing him and his friends, getting blown out of the sky, being forced to bail out with a faulty parachute and crashing into the trees below.

 

_Phew, it’s not a muzzle after all, looks like I just got tangled up in my chute and…_

 

The fox strained to get a better look, his vision finally starting to clear up enough for him to make sense of his surroundings. It turned out his parachute had not only managed to tangle him up, but had also gotten caught in the branches of the forest canopy. He craned his head to look down and saw that he was hanging a good fifteen to twenty meters above the ground.

 

_Oh...crap…_

 

Given everything that happened, he should've been pretty grateful that he was lucky enough to make it this far in one piece. Being alive was good and all, he wouldn't argue that; he just wished his luck wasn't so double edged all the time. It seemed like whenever anything good happened to him, something equally bad or worse had to come along just to make sure he couldn't enjoy it.

 

_Okay, take it easy Nick, you’ve got this, just take it slow. You can start by figuring out how to untangle yourself...without falling and shattering every bone in your body..._

 

He took a moment to unsheath his claws and look them over. They had recovered somewhat since their short stint as an improvised climbing pick back at the temple wall, but it would still be a while before they were fully healed. Still, they would do in a pinch as improvised cord cutters to untangle himself from the chute with.

 

_Easy Nick, watch where you cut, try to make sure you don't end up cutting the wrong cord and plummeting to your death…_

 

The treasure hunter carefully raked his claws over one cord after another, his mobility and freedom of movement increasing with each cut as the parachute's grip on him steadily loosened.

 

 _Almost there...nice and easy...that’s it...just a few more, then you can just swing yourself over to a branch and-_ The fox never managed to finish that thought. He wasn't sure what happened, maybe he cut one too many cords, maybe the parachute just gave out on its own. It didn't really matter much at this point, the end result was the same, the chute had completely unravelled and Nick was falling towards the jungle floor. 

 

“Oh crap!”

 

He reached out and grabbed the first thing he could, wrapping his paw around what turned out to be a loose parachute cord. He dug in as hard as he could, his paw burning from the friction as it slowed his descent. He finally wrenched to a stop a few meters above the ground with a  jolting pain in his arm and a burning sensation in his paw. Not taking any chances, he reached up with his other paw and got a firm grasp on the loose cord.

 

“Ha...ha…” Nick laughed exhaustedly. “That was a close one...a second longer and I’d have splattered against the grou-”

 

_*Snap*_

 

The tautness of the cord fell away and the vulpine dropped to the jungle floor, landing flat on his back with a painful thud. He looked up and his eyes went wide as he saw the source of the snapping noise, a large branch falling straight towards him. He instinctively rolled out of the way with a surprised yelp as the branch crashed right on top of his landing spot. He let out a relieved sigh at his close escape only for everything to suddenly go dark as the parachute itself came loose and dropped on top of him.

 

“Think I might just...stay here for a moment,” a dazed Nick decided as he lay there in the darkness beneath his chute. “Wait for the world to stop spinning…”After a few minutes of just lying motionless and letting his mind wander, he finally decided he was ready to get going. He tried to move, but the chute was heavier than it looked, weighing him down and stifling his movement as he struggled to crawl out from beneath it.

 

“Stupid...crappy...chute,” the treasure hunter mumbled as he struggled to pull himself out from beneath it. "Ah, finally,” he grunted once he was greeted by daylight again, free of the chute and getting back on his feet. He took a single triumphant step forward, only to stumble and land flat on his face. "That's probably gonna bruise," he groaned as he looked back and saw that the parachute had managed to wrap itself around his foot, tripping him in the process. “Get...off!” he growled as he tried to shake the chute loose with a kick, but it refused to relent, clinging firmly to his foot. "How the hell did you wrap around my foot so tightly? Find a new friend!" he yelled as he kicked repeatedly in frustration, finally managing to shake it off.

 

“Cheese and crackers, I’ve only just got here and this island’s already trying to kill me,” Nick sighed as he got back up on his feet. "Wait...did I seriously just say ‘cheese and crackers?’”

 

 _You’re talking to yourself too_ , he realized.

 

“I’ve been hanging out with that damn bunny too much…”

 

 _That or taken one too many hits to the head._ Nick was seriously wondering if he was starting to lose his mind.

 

“You know what? Just don't dwell on it,” Nick tried to reason. “I’m just...thinking out loud! Yeah! That’s right!”

 

_You keep telling yourself that…_

 

The treasure hunter shook his head, trying to push those thoughts down. He had enough problems to deal with already, he didn't need to add _arguments with self_ to the list. “First things first,” Nick started, trying to brush past his, hopefully minor, mental crisis. “Need to figure out where I stand."

 

The fox started trying to organize his thoughts. If he was gonna be able to pull this off, he'd need to figure out the situation, then he could form a plan. "Okay...so you have no idea where you are...your plane was shot down...you’re stranded...no food...no supplies...your friends are missing..."

 

 _Probably dead…_ Yeah, those doubts weren't going away anytime soon.

 

“Shut up,” Nick bit back. “And stop arguing with yourself…” He tried to bring his focus back to summarising the situation. “Okay...so on top of all that...you’ve got two psychos with gods knows how many mercs after you…” Nick continued, his ears and tail sagging as it became apparent just what kind of situation his poor decisions had landed him in. “That’s… that’s great...great start Nick...way to keep things under control....” He felt his doubts starting to mount again, but he tried to shake them off. “Don’t dwell on it, that won’t help, you've done this kind of thing before and you can do it again. Just gotta take this one step at a time.”

 

The red fox looked in one direction, then turned around to look in the other. “Starting with figuring out where the hell I am...” He reached for his side pack, thankful he had it on him when he jumped out of the plane. He pulled out the map he had drawn of the island, frowning as he looked at it. “Son of a bitch...I’m really starting to regret the rush job I did when I sketched this…” The map was cruder than he would’ve liked, but it was still enough for him to make his way around the island once he had an idea of where he was. He started with looking around at his surroundings, searching for any distinct details or landmarks, but all he saw in every direction were similar looking trees and vegetation.

 

“Great...guess I should be disappointed if it was _too_  easy..." he started. "Actually you know what? Screw that! I just got blown out of the sky, separated from my friends, my parachute nearly killed me twice and then it made me fall on my face, I'm allowed to wish things were easier!” He looked back down at the map and noticed sketches of raised ridges and cliffs on the western edge of the island. “Okay, then, maybe if I reach higher ground, I'll get a view of the whole island. Should make it easier to figure out where I am as well as where Judy and Finnick ended up.”

 

_Assuming they’re not dead…_

 

“Stop it! Just keep a clear head, Nick...you’ve got this.” He pulled a compass out to check his bearings, steadying it until he was certain he knew which way to go. He then drew the gun from his holster, checking the magazine to make sure it was loaded as well as looking over the two spare magazines he had in his pack. "Really hoping I won’t be needing this…”

 

_Coastline just shot you and your friends down, idiot, you're definitely going to need it._

 

Nick holstered his gun and placed the rest of his gear back in the pack. Once he was certain that he was as ready as he would ever be, he started heading west in search of higher ground.

 

* * *

 

**Two Hours Later**

 

_It’s all your fault, you let this happen._

 

“Dammit, come on, Nick! Really?!?! Now is _not_ the time for this,” the fox grunted as he shimmied along a small ledge outcropping, reaching to pull himself up to a nearby pawhold. He had spent the better part of the last half hour gradually working his way up the cliffside in search of a good vantage point of the island, hopefully without plunging to his death in the process. Self-doubt and guilt were hardly conducive to accident-free climbing, so he'd shoved those thoughts to the back of his mind while he scaled the cliff. But he couldn't hold them off forever, and in a case of horrible timing, said doubts and guilt came back with a vengeance.

 

“Besides, there’s no point in worrying about them, not really,” Nick tried to rationalize. “Judy got out of the plane, even saw her pull her chute.”

 

_Can’t say the same for Finnick…_

 

“Doesn’t matter...he had his chute with him, he’s probably fine.”

 

_The one he wasn’t wearing…_

 

“Ugh, why do I keep doing this to myself?!?!” the fox growled in frustration, making a small leap upward to another pawhold above and gripping it tightly. “As if climbing up a cliff with nothing but my paws wasn't hard enough already, now I gotta deal with this crap!”

 

_Face it, they’re both dead because of you. You hustled them into helping you rip off Dante, and now they're dead because you hustled them again into coming with you._

 

“Okay, first of all, they’re not dead...probably, and second, they wanted to come as much as I did.” Nick was really hoping he could either come to terms with these doubts or at least push them aside again until a point where a moment's distraction  _wouldn't_ lead to him losing his grip, falling, and being reduced to a fox shaped stain on the ground.

 

 _Trying to hustle yourself, now?  Judy just wanted to go home and Finn wanted to get drunk and chase tail in Bochi. Face it, you hustled them._  Said doubts and guilts did not seem to sympathize with his situation.

 

“I didn’t have to make _that_ big of a sales pitch, they both wanted to be here, I just had to remind them of that.” The fox pressed his feet against the face of the cliff and reached up towards another pawhold. “And rough landings aside, they’ll be fine, they’re both tough, I just need to find them.”

 

_Face it, they’re dead, it’s what happens to anybody who makes the mistake of trusting a shifty fox like you. Eventually, you always let them down and they're the ones who suffer for it._

 

“Okay, this is seriously getting dark...” the treasure hunter took a deep breath. “Come on Nick, stop thinking about it, don’t focus on the negatives, it's not that hard, just think positive. I’m sure they’re perfectly- _Wooooaahhh_ _!!”_

 

The fox cried out in surprise as he lost his grip on the pawhold and fell away from the cliffside. He quickly shot his paws out and caught a small ledge a few meters below him, it cracked from the force of the impact and one of his paws slipped loose. He dug in hard with the other paw though, maintaining his hold on the ledge, if only barely. The sudden stop was still enough to spin the fox around, painfully slamming both his back and tail against the cliff face, leaving him with another pair of bruises to add to the collection as well as causing him to swing around and face towards the jungle. Looking down, he was treated to a view of the jungle expanse below that was actually quite breathtaking, although as beautiful as the view was, it was more of the bad kind of breathtaking given how it was reminding him of just how far the drop would've been if he hadn't grabbed that ledge in time.

 

“Son of a bitch!” he yelled. “This is why I didn’t want to have to deal with this crap until _after_ I made it to the top!” With an exhausted sigh, he swung himself back around and grabbed onto the ledge with his other paw. Once he was certain he had a secure grip, he took a minute to calm down and get his breath back. “Okay, Nick, no more screwing around. Shelve the bad thoughts until you’ve made it up there,” he tried to instruct himself. “Seriously, I doubt I have it in me to pull that off a second time…”

 

The fox shimmied along the ledge to the nearest pawhold and resumed his climb up the cliffside. Thankfully, he didn’t give Judy or Finnick another thought until he reached the top.

 

* * *

 

“Finally,” Nick gasped as he pulled himself over the ledge and onto the top of the ridge. “I hate cliffs so much…” The vulpine rolled over and lay flat on his back, finally able to take a moment to catch his breath and wait for the feeling in his arms to come back. Treasure hunting was certainly a physically demanding line of work, he would know, but spending nearly an hour climbing a cliff with nothing but his bare paws and a grappling hook was just insane, even more so when he managed to add one instance of nearly falling to his death to the mix.

 

Once he was ready, Nick got back up on his feet and took in the view he had nearly died trying to reach. As exhausting, unpleasant, and downright nerve-wracking the last hour had been, his gambit had managed to pay off. From up here, he could see almost the entire island. The ridge continued all the way to the south end of the island, gradually decreasing in height until it finally disappeared below the jungle canopy. Not far from the ridge was a series of small ruins, nothing large enough to be the fabled city of Henosia, but they seemed consistent with what looked like some sort of town on the map. To the north, he saw several more ruins that may have been outposts at one point. To the east, there was a series of small to medium sized mountains running close to the shore with visible ruins and walls built into them that looked far more elaborate in build and detail than any of the other ruins he could see.

 

“Hmm,” the fox began to speculate. “Good location for a city, close to the shore, highly defensible, matches the location on the map... could that be Henosia?” He considered it for a moment before shoving the thought aside, “Can figure that out later. For now, gotta figure out where Judy and Finn ended up.”

 

He scanned the island, turning his gaze back south until he spotted a plume of black smoke rising in the distance. “Okay, I’m guessing that’s our crash site,” Nick pointed. “So Finn’s probably in that direction.” He then spun around and pointed to the north, “Which means Judy will probably have landed somewhere over there.” He looked back and forth at the northern and southern edges of the island, his ears sagging as he realized the conundrum this posed. “So whoever I go looking for first...will put me even further away from the other. Great...as if things weren’t complicated enough already…” It was then that Nick looked out at the ocean water, seriously starting to wonder if he was tempting fate given what he was seeing out there. 

 

Boats. Lots of boats. Enough for a small fleet. And all of them were heading straight for the southern edge of the island. Flying over the fleet was a single helicopter. Nick narrowed his gaze, certain of the mammal that was on board.

 

“Dante…”

 

Things were bad enough when he’d discovered there was already a Coastline scouting party waiting for them at the island. But now, as if being stranded in the middle of nowhere wasn't bad enough, there was an entire army about to make landfall. “Dammit...Judy...Finn...wherever you guys are…you watch your backs…”

 

He couldn’t waste any more time, he needed to hurry up and find the others before Coastline did. The only question was who did he go looking for first? He glanced at the northern end of the island where Judy had landed, then back at the smoke on the southern end where Finnick and the Coastline fleet were. 

 

 _They’re probably gonna head straight to that plane wreckage,_ Nick realized. _Which means..._

 

He didn’t like the idea forming in his head, but he knew it was the only real option if Finnick was still alive. “Sorry, Carrots, looks like you’re gonna have to sit tight for a bit. Finn’s the one short on time,” Nick decided as he started following the ridge to the south. “Can’t believe I’m seriously about to head _towards_ the army of trigger happy lunatics. Bet they’ll make me into a fur coat or something if they catch me…”

 

_Or Finn…_

 

“Oh great...more of _that_ to deal with… how swell...”

 

* * *

 

Things were rather uneventful as Nick made his way south along the ridge, moving from one traversable passage to the next in the hopes of finding a safe way back down to the jungle. “So far, so good, guess Coastline hasn’t made it this far north yet,” he noted. He tried to appreciate the lack of action while he could, if this job had made anything clear, every time Coastline showed up, things quickly tended to get loud and frantic, also, shit would usually start exploding.

 

As the passage started to curve around a large rock outcropping, something leaning against the base of the rock managed to catch Nick's eye. On closer inspection, he saw that it was the skeletal remains of a mammal. “Hello...what have we here?” The treasure hunter moved closer, bending down to investigate the dead mammal. It was some sort of ungulate, probably a sheep from what he could gather. The mammal’s clothing was worn and faded and the shortsword gripped in it's hooves was covered in rust, but the fox could still make out the dragon and lion insignia of House Leodor on the blade's pommel.

 

“Huh...you must've been part of Wilde’s crew. So he made it after all...” Nick started rifling through the mammal's clothing. “Maybe you can tell me what happened out here.” He eventually found a journal, opening it up and flipping through the entries until he found something relevant.

 

_March 2nd, 1585_

_There is much to say, but time is short so I will have to summarise to the best of my abilities, Wilde needs all paws and hooves on deck if we’re to remain one step ahead of our Blackhorn adversaries. His instincts were as sharp as ever when his theory about the temple proved to be true, for we found the coordinates to_ _Henosia within. All did not go as planned though, a Blackhorn armada managed to track and ambush us at the site. It should've been our downfall, their fleet was far larger and better equipped than ours, but Wilde is a crafty captain. Not only did he turn the tables on our ambushers and get us back to the ships, he even managed to break through the Blackhorn blockade with minimal losses._

 _There was a time when it would have brought me shame to say such things, but Wilde is a truly exemplary sailor and I can think of no other capable of performing as admirably as he has. He may be a fox, but we all_ _owe him our lives, and I consider it an honour to be by his side as we claim this city of legend in the name of House Leodor and the Pine Isles. Still, it is too early to speak of such things as certainties, for_   _the odds are stacked against us. Even with the successes we’ve had, claiming the city before the Blackhorns will be no simple task. The trek will surely be a dangerous one and I pray that our fortunes continue to hold once we reach our destination._

 

Nick looked through the proceeding entries, but few were of any real interest. They were mostly accounts of the mammal's activities on the ship as they sailed for Henosia with the occasional brief skirmish against the Blackhorn fleet or encounters with rough waters and stormy weather. It wasn't until the final two entries that he found the answers he was looking for.

 

_August 14th, 1585_

_The gods certainly aren’t making this easy on us. We reached the island where Henosia resides, but the Blackhorns finally overtook us. Wilde is a genius sailor but even he has his limits, the Blackhorns vastly outnumbered us and their crews were far less exhausted than ours,_ _we never stood a chance. Most of our fleet was destroyed in the fighting, the rest were dashed against the rocks trying to escape._

 _But all is not lost yet, Wilde and several teams have made it to the shore. The Blackhorn fleet may outnumber and outgun us, but all those advantages amount to naught within the confines of the jungle._ _With Wilde’s ingenuity, the determination of our surviving crew, and the favour of the gods, we may just be able to salvage this situation yet. I go now to rest and prepare myself, the days to come will no doubt push all of us to our limits, and Wilde will need all of us at our best if we are to prevail._

 

“Wow, sounds like both Wilde and the Blackhorns went to some pretty extreme lengths to find this place," Nick said as he flipped to the last entry. "Now how does your tale end, buddy?" Judging by the blood that was staining the final page, it probably didn’t end well.

 

_August 17th, 1585_

_I pray to the gods for deliverance, for at this point, nothing short of a miracle will save us. Fate seemed to on our side, for a time. The first few battles against the Blackhorns were decisive victories. Wilde is as clever_ _on land as he is at sea, having us strike where they were weak and disappear into the jungle before they could respond. But the Blackhorns vastly outnumber us and they knew how to press that to their advantage. As savvy as_ _Captain Wilde is, even he couldn't stop them from forcing our mammals into a battle we could not possibly win. We must have killed at least ten of them for every one of us that fell, yet it still wasn't enough. The Blackhorns forces shattered ours_ _and we scattered into the jungle._ _I can only pray that Wilde managed to escape, he's the reason we've made it as far as we have, and any hope of victory is truly lost if he has fallen._

 _I had to push my way through one of their lines in order to escape._ _I must've cut down at least a dozen trying to get away but it was still too much, I didn't even see the cursed weasel before he jammed his knife between my ribs. Not that it saved him since I still put_ _my sword through his skull. I was able to escape and seek refuge in the cliffs above, but I fear the weasel's blow may have struck truer than I_ _thought as the wound still hasn't stopped bleeding._

 _The Blackhorns haven't pursued me so I have stopped to rest and tend to my wounds. Should I survive the night, I will see if there's another path_ _down. Before that last battle, Wilde spoke of a fortress he was searching for that may hold the key to our victory. I pray that he is right and that I can meet up with him again to find this place. Gods willing, it may hold the key to getting us off this island alive._  

 

"Looks like that wasn't how things turned out for you," Nick took the dead mammal's journal and placed it in his pack. "Sounds like Wilde's expedition turned into quite the shit show…one more thing the two of us have in common, I guess. At least this 'fortress' might make for a good lead to check out once I find the others."

 

Nick started moving along the passage again. As he turned around another corner, he jumped at the cracking of several gunshots. His hackles raised instinctively and he immediately dove behind a rock, pulling out his gun and chambering a round.

 

“Hey, hey! The hell you shooting at, bru?” he heard a voice shouting in the distance.

 

“Saw something, maybe...looked like movement in the trees,” the 'bru' answered.

 

Curious at what was happening, Nick peeked over the edge of the rock to get a better look. He saw two Coastline mercenaries, a jackal and hyena, on a raised cliff path further ahead separated from his own by a small gap. The two of them were staring down at the jungle below, the jackal aiming at the treeline with his rifle while the hyena stood right behind him, looking down in the same direction.

 

“Well, that’s thick jungle, eh? Isn't it all moving?” The hyena leaned over to take a closer look at the treeline, “I don’t see anything down there.”

 

“Damn it…” the canine shook his head. “All right everyone, false alarm!” he called out.

 

“Great...” Nick quietly muttered as he watched the hyena mercenary disappear behind a curve in the cliff, “Was really hoping I'd have more time before dealing with these idiots again.” There wasn’t much room to maneuver around these cliffs and Nick had no idea how many mercenaries were patrolling the area, both of which made for less than ideal conditions for trying to sneak around. But they didn’t know he was here yet, which meant they probably weren’t alert. He could use that to his advantage.

 

“Just gotta hop over to that ledge and shimmy my way around the side of the cliff,” Nick said, starting to form a plan. “There's gotta be a passage or something that they used to get up here, I just need to find it.”

 

He made a short leap over the gap separating him from the path, quietly pulling himself up and moving into some tall grass to conceal himself. Peering through the grass, he noticed the jackal was alone now, standing way too close to the edge of the cliff and just staring out at the island wilderness below.

 

 _Not paying attention, should be able to quietly take him out_ , Nick planned. _Can just stick to the cliff's edge after that._

 

He slowly crept forward, making sure any rustling he caused as he moved through the tall grass could just be attributed to the wind. Once he was nearly on top of the jackal, he burst forward and planted a foot square in the back of the canid's knee. The mercenary stumbled forward with a pained grunt and Nick followed through, throwing his weight into the jackal's back and shoving him over the edge of the cliff. The mercenary only managed to get out a single surprised yelp before he was gone.

 

“Mind the landing, pal,” Nick quipped as he paused to take a breath. “Well, that wasn’t so bad.”

 

“What now, bru? You stub a toe or something?” Nick heard the hyena call out from behind, his fur standing on end again as he realized he wouldn't have enough time to get out of sight. He turned around just in time to see the mercenary stepping around the corner.

 

_Shit!_

 

There was a brief pause as the hyena looked up, taking a moment to register that the mammal he was looking at wasn’t the same one who had been treating the trees as hostiles a minute earlier. His eyes went wide in alarm and he gritted his teeth when he realized who it actually was.

 

“Hey! You!”

 

The mercenary immediately went for his rifle, but Nick was already one step ahead, sprinting towards the larger mammal as fast as he could. As he charged the mercenary, Nick reached for the grappling hook at his side and threw it straight at the surprised mammals face. The hook connected against the hyena’s muzzle with a crack and his head snapped backward, a pained growl emerging from the mercenary followed by the deafening crack of a gunshot as he fired wide.

 

The treasure hunter quickly moved to grab the hyena’s rifle and disarm him, but the mammal was too strong and too quick to recover. Nick quickly came to regret his decision as the rifle refused to budge in his grip and he instead found himself being lifted along with it into the air. He held tightly onto the rifle as the hyena flung him back and, forth trying to shake him loose before just slamming him into the stone wall of the cliff instead. The blow stunned the fox and his breath was cut off as he felt the rifle slammed against his throat. The hyena got right in his face, snout bleeding, teeth bared, and eyes ablaze with fury as they locked onto his own. This was the look of a mammal who had no intention of taking him alive.

 

 _This seemed like such a good idea about ten seconds ago_ _..._ he probably would've said if he wasn't currently having the life strangled out of him.

 

Nick tried to shove the rifle back, but the mercenary had him pinned. As he struggled for breath, he switched tactics, using one paw to try and shove the hyena back as a distraction while reaching for his holstered pistol with the other, shoving it into the larger mammals exposed side and firing several point-blank shots. The hyena cried out in pain, dropping the fox to grasp at his wound for a moment before slumping over, silent within moments of hitting the ground.

 

With the mercenary dispatched, Nick gasped for air, slowly pulling himself up and grabbing his thrown grappling hook. He bent over and looked at the hyena lying on the ground. The eyes were now empty and lifeless without a trace of the fury that had been there moments earlier, this mammal would not be getting back up soon, or ever. "Asshole..." the fox grumbled before noticing a radio on the ground, the mammal had probably dropped it as soon as the fight started. "Hmmm, this might come in handy," he figured as he bent down and picked it up, attaching it to his belt.

 

“What the hell are you guys shooting at, now?" a voice called out from behind the rocks that seemed to be rapidly approaching. "This isn't a pillage or raid job, you idiots, Cackler and the rich boy want these guys found, and we sure as hell won't find them if they hear us coming because you're shooting everything that moves!"

  

_Crap...more of them!_

 

Nick quickly ran for the cliff's edge and dropped down, grabbing onto the ledge. Looking down, he noticed a second smaller ledge just below and out of sight, dropping down to it and grabbing on with both paws. He planted his feet against the face of the cliff and tried to stay motionless as the sound of padding footsteps steadily increased in volume just above him.

 

“What's got you guys so quiet all of a sudden? Don't tell me you're still pissed about...the...hell?” the approaching voice changing from casual to confused to alarmed as it got closer. “Shit! We got a mammal down over here! Somebody took out Tuan!”

 

“Anybody see anything?” another voice asked.

 

“Spread out and search the area!” the first voice ordered, the patrol leader if Nick had to guess. “Whoever did this, they can’t have gone far!”

 

“You think it’s Wilde?” the other mammal asked.

 

“Well Tuan sure as hell didn’t shoot himself several times,” the leading mercenary answered, sounding even closer than before. He was probably standing right above Nick, but the fox dared not crane his head up to take a look, lest he attract the mammal’s attention.

 

_Quiet, Nick...quiet...if they see you now, you’re dead for sure._

 

“No sign of Jax, either,” the other mercenary noted. “Think our mystery mammal got him, too?”

 

“Possibly...” Nick heard the sound of feet shuffling, it sounded like the leading mammal was moving away, probably back to the rest of the patrol. “Make sure the others know to stay on their guard, this guy's gotten one of our boys already, probably two. I do  _not_ want to end up having to tell Cackler this guy managed to kill several of our mammals and slip past.”

 

Once he was certain the other mammals were gone, Nick took a deep sigh of relief. The relief quickly changed to stress and frustration once he realized how badly he'd miscalculated and how much more difficult it had made things. _Well,_ _now they know I'm here, which means they'll be watching the passage. So...my options are trying to reach that passage, probably getting spotted and shot in the process_ _..._ the fox thought as he looked up at the top of the cliff ledge, o _r trying to climb down without any planned path and likely falling to my death..._ he turned to look at the long drop down. _Nice job Nick, way to take something as simple as shoving a clueless mercenary off a cliff and let it spiral completely out of control.._.He braced himself and started moving along the cliffside, focusing on staying out of sight and hoping maybe he'd stumble on some other alternative.

 

Progress was slow as he quietly made his way along the cliff, the frantic sounds of footsteps above him the whole time as the Coastline patrols searched the above passageway. He tried to focus on the task at paw and not think about what would happen if they managed to figure out where he was.

 

“There’s no sign of him, you think he slipped by?” he heard one of the mercenaries ask.

 

“No way, those shots went off right before we got there. He wouldn't have been able to slip past without us noticing," the commanding mammal speculated. "He’s still here, he has to be. The only question is where?”

 

As Nick was listening in, his foot slipped against the cliffside, knocking several rocks loose. “Crap,” he whispered as the rocks cracked and broke away, bouncing down the cliff and making entirely too much noise, in this case, too much being any at all. He silently prayed that the mercenaries above wouldn’t pay it any notice.

 

“Hold on, what was that noise just now?”

 

Nick froze, his ears and tail completely stiff as he hung there in tense silence, hoping the mercenaries weren't smart enough to put two and two together and figure out where he was.

 

“The cliff! He’s hanging off the edge of the cliff!” the leader shouted, dashing said hopes. Unfortunately, it seemed they  _were_ smart enough.

 

_Maybe I should've thought about what would happen if they found me after all..._

 

Nick tried to flatten himself against the side of the cliff as mercenaries started peering over the edge looking for him, but it was a doomed effort. The climbing surface was simply too flat, there was nowhere for him to hide. His whole cliff shimmying plan for getting past them had hinged on the assumption that the mercenaries wouldn't think he was suicidal enough to try a stunt like this...

 

_Maybe it's my terrible decision making that always lands me in such tight spots..._

 

“There! He’s down there!” one mercenary shouted before opening fire. Chunks of the cliff started splintering off as bullets peppered the surface the fox was clinging to, narrowly missing him and causing him to flinch.

 

Not one to sit idly while some asshole took potshots at him, Nick reached for his pistol, craning his neck up to see a light brown furred caracal firing at him. Not having time to line up his aim, he quickly snapped off several shots at his attacker, most of them missed the mark, but he managed to hit something as the feline fell backwards.

 

“Eina!" the caracal cried in pain. "Damn _brak_  pegged me in the arm!"

 

“Somebody kill that damn fox, already!” the leading mammal ordered.

 

Taking that as his cue to start moving, Nick glanced over and saw a rock outcropping further along the cliffside that would work as cover and started recklessly scrambling towards it. Bullets rained down from above as the mercenaries started firing with reckless abandon, hoping a stray bullet might be able to send him falling before he could reach cover. But the fox's luck and speed managed to be enough as he quickly hopped from pawhold to pawhold, successfully bracing himself behind the cover of the outcropping before any of the mercenaries could get a bead on him.

 

“He still down there?” somebody asked.

 

“What kind of moronic question is that? Of course he’s still down there!” the leader shouted. “Hurry up and finish him off!”

 

The mercs continued pouring firing in Nick's direction to little effect, the bullets just ineffectually chipping away at the massive rock outcropping he was hiding under.

 

“Dammit, can’t get a clean shot!” one mercenary shouted in frustration.

 

“Me either.”

 

"This is going nowhere, hold your fire!" the leader ordered. On his command, all the gunfire died down and all that remained was the sound of the wind blowing against the cliffside. "Come on out, little fox," the leader taunted, breaking the silence. "I promise we'll make it quick!"

 

Nick carefully peeked out to get a look at the leader as he was leaning over the cliffside. It was a brown and white coloured tankwa goat, a very impatient looking one from the looks of it. “Thanks, but I think I'm good,” he shouted back, firing off several more shots. They hit the base of the ledge the goat was leaning on, startling him and causing him to jump back out of the way. All of a sudden, the cliffside was lit up with gunfire again as the mercenaries began resuming their attack. Nick quickly ducked back behind cover though, the bullets once again bouncing ineffectually off the outcropping. 

 

"Cease fire!" the goat ordered a second time. "You domkops are just wasting ammo at this point."

 

"He's right, you know," Nick shouted up at them. "Coastline must have really low standards, you guys wouldn't even be able to hit a sloth. Should just run along and grab a can for your goat officer pal to chew on, might improve his mood." 

 

He hung there in silence, waiting for whatever angry taunt the goat mercenary was going to respond with. "Uhhh, that wasn't too specist was it? It's not like I have a problem with goats or anything...just don't like assholes trying to kill me is all..." Nick asked when the silence dragged on for too long. On some level, he _was_ seriously wondering if that taunt had been a bit much, but mostly, he was just stalling in the hopes he could figure out some sort of super reckless escape plan with a high chance of getting him killed before the mercenaries had time to come up with one of their own. Not that either option was preferable, but if he had a choice, he'd probably prefer to be the accidental cause of his own demise rather than give some other asshole the chance to do it. 

 

“To hell with this, get the C4!” the goat ordered. “We’ll bring the entire cliff down on this asshole!” Okay, so apparently Nick had misjudged how reckless and impatient mercenaries could be. 

 

“Oh, come on! Seriously?!?! The can thing wasn't _that_ bad!” Nick shouted before deciding to just wing it and started rapidly working his way down the cliffside. If he was fast and lucky enough, he might be able to find a decent escape route or at least some more suitable cover from the inevitable explosion and rockslide that would be coming his way. Given the fact he was improvising, he had no idea if there was any safe way down to the bottom, but it was certainly better than sticking around waiting to get blown up by Coastline.

 

He didn’t get very far before he discovered that no, in fact, there was no safe way down to the bottom. The pawholds and ledges came to an abrupt end, leaving nothing but a smooth rock surface almost all the way down to the jungle floor. The cliff did start to slope out closer to the bottom, possibly enough for him to be able to safely slide the rest of the way, but it was way too far of a drop from where he was hanging. While he was not generally one to dismiss an idea just because it was reckless, one that broke his neck in the process was perhaps a little  _too_ reckless.

 

“Wonderful...What was that old saying, something about rocks and hard places?” Nick looked down at the slope below and back up at the ledge where the mercenaries were probably setting up the explosives. "But what if I could…” he took a look at his paws. He was too high up to safely drop down to the sloped section of the cliff, but if he managed to slow his descent enough… 

 

_*Boom*_

 

A thunderous explosion interrupted his thoughts and he felt a heat wave wash over him followed by the sound of cracking as the cliff above starting to crack and break apart. He looked up just in time to see a boulder falling straight towards him. "Woah," he shouted in surprise as it nearly struck him, knocking away a good portion of the ledge he was hanging from and nearly taking him out with it. He tried to make himself as small as possible, looking around as he saw huge chunks of the cliff falling all around him.

 

"Okay, this is bad..." suddenly, the ledge he was hanging off of started to crack, shifting downwards and causing his legs and one of his paws to slip loose. "Very Bad! _Very_   _bad!!!"_ The ledge broke away entirely and the fox let out a panicked shout as he fell with it. He unsheathed his claws and slammed them into the smooth cliff surface, trying to dig into the rock with all his might, feeling his paws flare in agony as the claws screeched and tore against the surface. The friction it generated was able to slow his descent, but the rock surface was quickly wearing his claws down. Not that it mattered when another boulder smashed into the rock surface right above him, knocking him loose. There was a brief feeling of weightlessness followed by a painful impact as he landed on the cliff slope and started sliding downwards. It looked like he had managed to get far enough down to survive the fall after all, didn't stop it from hurting like hell, though. Fighting through the pain, he struggled to control his slide, orienting himself so that he faced towards the jungle as he slid down, pieces of the shattered cliffside smashing into the slope all around him as he went.

 

“Too fast! Too fast! Too fast!” he screamed as he slid down the slope at an alarmingly fast pace. He quickly curled into a ball to help soften the blow as the ground began to even out, rolling along and smashing through way too many bushes before finally wiping out and faceplanting into the ground. Dazed by the impact, he slowly struggled to pull himself up until a tree crashed right next to him, shocking him out of his daze and reminding him there was a collapsing cliff that still might bury him.

 

"Are you kidding me?!?!" Nick yelled, ignoring the pain he was feeling as he took off running from the landslide as fast as his battered body would allow. Chunks of the collapsing cliff bulldozed their way through the jungle, shattering and knocking down trees as they went. It was all he could do to keep moving and hope he didn't wind up buried under it all.

 

“Rocks! Too many rocks!” The fox yelled, instinctively ducking to the side when he saw a large shadow looming over him and barely dodging out of the way of a slab of rock that would have flattened him completely. “Wait, what the hell am I doing?” the fox asked himself, suddenly realizing how pointless it would be to try and outrun a landslide. Instead,  he made a sharp turn to the left and started sprinting out of the way of the mass of tumbling earth. He managed to narrowly dodge his way past several more boulders as they smashed through the jungle before throwing himself safely out of the landslide's path with a desperate dive, crashing right into the middle of a large bush.

 

As the thunderous rumbling of the landslide and the cracking of broken trees eventually began to die down, Nick was finally able to take a moment and process what had just happened. He had managed to get himself completely tangled up in the bush up, somehow hanging upside down with his tail dangling in front of his muzzle. "Ow...my...everything...hurts," he groaned as he slowly dislodged himself from the bush, his whole body feeling like one giant bruise at this point. Once he'd managed to sort himself out, he looked over at the area that had been caught in the landslide, seeing the widespread devastation it had caused. Boulders and broken trees littered the ground with large patches of the canopy now completely gone. He could see through the patches to the sky and cliffside above, the part of the cliff where the landslide occurred had been completely transformed, large parts of it now missing or dislodged, like somebody had taken a giant chisel to it, or more accurately, an excessive amount of explosives. "Who the hell brings an entire cliff down just to kill one mammal?"

 

He looked down at his mangled claws, they were still flaring with pain and had been practically worn down to nubs by the rocks. "Dammit, it's gonna be months before they grow back, now... " He took a step forward hissing as a whole new set of sharp pains shocked his system. “There’s gotta be a less painful way to make a living…”

 

The treasure hunter would’ve loved nothing more than to just sit down and rest again until everything stopped hurting, but he couldn’t afford to stick around. Odds were those mercenaries would be coming to check the landside, he needed to make himself scarce before they realized he survived and tried to finish him off. He double checked his bearings to make sure all the climbing, running, explosions, and flying rocks hadn't thrown off his sense of direction before limping off into the jungle, wincing in pain with each step he took. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Stupid cliffs...Finnick better appreciate all the crap I'm going through just to find him...”

 

 

* * *

 

Nick had spent the better part of an hour limping through the jungle, his pace picking up as the sharp pains of his injuries and bruises gradually faded to a dull ache. “Not the worst I’ve ever felt. Had hangovers worse than this, that’s for sure,” he said, trying to keep himself from becoming discouraged. “Course after nights like those, anybody chasing me would, at worst, just stuff me in a trash can and roll me down a hill…” As lucky as he had been so far, he still barely managed to get out of his last few scraps with Coastline by the skin of his teeth, and certainly not unscathed if the soreness he was feeling indicated anything. Now that Dante and Cackler had brought a small army with them, he wouldn't be able to keep this up on his own, not with the kind of beatings he had been tanking. He needed help if any of them were going to survive, and that meant finding Judy and Finnick as soon as possible.

 

_Assuming they’re still alive…_

 

“Gotta hurry up and find them before these damn doubts drive me up the wall,” Nick furrowed his brow in thought. “Come on Nick, think, Gramps' given you tons of tips over the years, there's gotta be one you can think of that'll help you out of this mess.” He took a moment to stop and began reflecting back on the various pearls of wisdom the grumpy fox had shared with him over the course of their partnership.

 

_Kid, don't bother wasting your time on all those Hollywool punches and haymaker crap. In a real fight, always go for the face. If you can’t reach that high, bring 'em down to your level, a whack to the balls oughta do the trick. Then, go for the face._

 

“Nope.”

 

_Swapping the artifact with something the same weight is usually 50/50. It either goes off without a hitch, or you'll set off the pressure plates, then ya gotta start running your tail off as all manner of darts 'n boulders 'n shit start flying at ya._

 

“Nuh, uh.”

 

_There’s nothing wrong with trying to charm a nice gal just 'cus she has a boyfriend. Just be sure you can either outrun him and any pals of his or that you can take ‘em in a fight. That or get some pals of your own to back you up._

 

Nick shook his head. “Why is this guy my mentor, again?”

 

_You’re not Blake freaking Vicious, kid. Don’t think you can just blast your way through any rival crews you run into during a job, that’s how you wind up as some asshole's new fur rug. If you're gonna go up against another crew, then you're gonna need every edge you can get. Don’t be afraid to fight dirty, hit 'em where they're blind, use their own tools and weapons if you can get your paws on 'em. Playing fair is for idiots, the competition sure as hell won't be, so you shouldn't either. Remember, this business is all about doing whatever it takes to come out on top, there ain't any prizes for coming in second._

 

“Use their own tools...” Nick pawed at the radio he 'borrowed' from Coastline. “Not much, but it's a start if I can get in touch with the others.” Nick grabbed the radio and flicked it on, “Please don’t be broken...”Despite the beating it had taken during his escapades back at the cliff, the radio was still in working order, static and voices erupting from the speaker as it came on. He was about to key the button when he suddenly stopped. “Wait a minute...how the hell do I know if either of them even has a radio? And what channel would they be using? Coastline's bound to be using a bunch and it's not like I can just start chatting in any random channel without drawing attention...”

 

_Think Nick, what would Finn do in this situation?_

 

He focused hard, thinking back to past jobs he and the desert fox had done that might be relevant. One particular job he had pulled with Finn in Sanad Kavos came to mind with a potential solution when he thought back to a specific exchange. 

 

_“You sure it’s a good idea to use the police channels, Gramps? They’ll be all over us if they figure out we’re on there, and believe me, you do **not** want to wind up in a Kavos prison...”_

 

_“Yeah, yeah, everybody knows about Kavos prisons, Kid. My guy says that as long as we stick to channel thirteen, we should be fine, they don’t use that one. So quit getting your panties in a twist, already.”_

 

“Bingo,” the fox smirked. “Just gotta find an empty channel.”

 

He turned the radio back on and started flipping through channels. “Just gotta hope the others figured that out as well...and that they have radios…” With a flick of his thumb, he flipped to the first channel.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“Find anything?” a voice asked over the comm.

 

“Nothing,” another voice answered. “Just an empty chute. Probably ditched it and took off into the jungle.”

 

“Finally some good news,” Nick sighed with relief, the burden he was feeling starting to lift. “An abandoned chute might mean at least one of them’s still alive…”

 

"Found some pawprints in the dirt, looks like he started heading west towards the cliffs," one of the voices described.

 

"Oh, wait...that's my chute..." Nick realized, the burden slamming back into place. "Shit...well, never mind then."  He flipped to the next channel, jumping into the middle of another conversation.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“...I can't believe they blew up the damn cliff,” one mammal was saying in disbelief. "Which one was it?”

 

“Wilde, they think,” a second voice answered. “Shot at least one of our guys, and they think he pushed another off the cliff. Caught him hanging off the side of the cliff so they brought the entire thing down on him.”

 

"Eish, talk about excessive..." the original mammal muttered in shock. "Did they at least get him?" 

 

"Don't know," the second merc answered. "They're still checking the area. Last I heard, they hadn't found a body yet."

 

"You know the rich boy wants him alive, right? That zebra's gonna be pretty pissed if that fox turns up dead before he's had a crack at him. You sure they know what they're risking, operating like that? He's got a pretty nasty temper from what I hear."

 

 _I would know_ , Nick thought, thinking back to some of the stories he'd heard about Dante as well as his own personal experiences with him.

 

“Yeah, well, nobody really cares about that prick, he's Cacklers headache to deal with. Besides, we both know how little that sort of thing matters to the crew when their pride is at stake,” the other mercenary responded.

 

“Well…that’s just lovely...nice to know Dante's planning all sorts of 'creative' surprises for me. And that Coastline is kind enough to spare me that pain, if only because they'd rather kill me themselves...” Nick shuddered as he switched channels again.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“So, Baju, how's the head doing?” a familiar sounding voice asked, although Nick couldn’t quite remember who it belonged to.

 

“Still sore,” another equally familiar sounding voice groaned in response. "Starts throbbing if I think too hard."

 

_Why do I feel like I should know these two?_

 

“Who the hell could’ve guessed a little runt like that could pack such a wallop?” the second voice continued.

 

“Wait a minute…” Nick paused, starting to recall who these mammals were.

 

“At least he didn’t nail you in the blimming balls!” the first mammal grumbled, letting out a pained grunt over the channel.

 

“Oh crap…” Nick whispered as he finally managed to put faces to the voices. The hapless nyala and cheetah back at the temple, the ones Finnick and Judy had beaten the shit out of.

 

“Damn that little  _brak_ , it still hurts to piss,” the nyala growled over the radio. “And I still can’t see the other one…”

 

Nick cringed as the memories of that fight came rolling back. Finnick always had a mean swing and it was hardly the first time he'd seen the small fox take down somebody many times his size, the guy was a natural at that sort of thing. Still, he couldn't even begin to imagine how painful a hit like that would be, that one especially, given how it so brutally connected with the antelope's... unmentionables...He almost felt sorry for the guy...almost...He couldn't exactly forget about the whole trying to kill him thing.

 

“And that rabbit breaking off your horn!” the cheetah, evidently named Baju, said, giggling slightly. “Eish, you had it rough, Tanger. How long before the missing one grows back?”

 

“Grows back?!?! The hell you...” the nyala angrily sputtered. “Those are _antlers,_ you dolt!”

 

“Wait...so that means...” the cheetah started.

 

“It means it’s gone! Finished! Never growing back!” Tanger practically shouted. “Damn Wilde and damn that crew of his, can’t wait to get my hooves on the whole lot of those assholes. By the time I'm done with them, a broken horn and bruised balls will be the least of their worries...”

 

“Uhh, bru? Foxes and rabbits don't have horns...” Baju pointed out, seemingly having missed the point of Tanger's rage-induced rant.

 

"...Shut the _hell_ up you mangy ca-"

 

"Yikes!" Nick shut the radio off, having had enough of that discussion. “I don't suppose it would be too late to just give them an apology...” Trying not to think about what those two probably had in mind for him if they ever crossed paths again, he turned the radio back on and switched to the next channel.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“Team 6 reporting in,” a voice called in after a few moments.

 

“Status report,” another voice answered. It didn’t sound like Cackler, but it was probably a Coastline officer.

 

“We’ve finished scoping the caves in the area, if they’re laying low, it ain’t down there.”

 

“Well one of the other teams reported getting into a firefight with somebody along the western ridge, they think it was Wilde,” the officer responded. “Might want to head in that direction, see if the others are trying to link up with him.”

 

“We're on it,” the mercenary affirmed before killing the conversation.

 

“Great...they’re crawling all over the damn place looking for us already. Guess they don't want to make this easy for us...” Nick groaned as he switched channels again. “At least they seem to think the others survived, that’s...probably a good sign...right?”

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“Supplies moving in?” the voice on the next channel asked.

 

“Yeah, offloading from the boat, should be set up at the camp in a few hou-”

 

“Booooooring,” Nick yawned, having listened in for a full five seconds before deciding it was time to switch again.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“Hey.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Do you ever wonder why we’re here?”

 

The fox left that channel behind with an irritated sigh. “This would be going a lot faster if there weren’t so many bored idiots jamming up the air waves…"

 

_*Kssh*_

 

Silence was all that met him on the next channel. He waited a few moments to make sure there was, in fact, nothing going on, before finally keying the button to talk. "Uhhh...hello? Anybody reading me on here?"

 

There was a pause as he released the button before another voice answered.

 

"Swiftah? That you? What's going on? Why you calling in early?"

 

"Crap…" Nick winced, recognizing the gruff voice of Cackler. This was the exact sort of thing he _didn't_ want to happen. He braced himself as he keyed the radio again to answer.

 

"Uhhh...ey, mam! Everything's good...just messed up the report schedule...heh…" Nick stammered out, trying his best to imitate a Southern Savannah accent. "Bllimming dumb move….yah?"

 

_Please let that be a passable accent..._

 

"Who the hell is this? Are you drunk?" the hyena commander barked over the channel. "Never mind, where's Swiftah? Why are you on his channel?"

 

Nick winced even harder this time, he really needed to get better at doing accents.

 

"Uhhh, Swiftah went to take a piss... I'm just calling in for him," the fox improvised. "That's...that's why I called early! Didn't know the schedule. Honest mistake for anyone, right...bru?"

 

Nick smacked himself in the face. _Godsdammit Nick, why the hell did you call him bru?_

 

"Okay, you're either drunk, an idiot, a liar, or some combination of the three," an incredibly agitated Cackler growled over the radio. " Either way, I've heard enough! Who is this? What's your call sign?"

 

"Uhhh...uhhh…" Nick's mind was racing as he struggled to come up with a response, any response. "Just...give me a sec…I've got it...right...here...uhh...Oh crap! What the hell is that?!?! Swiftah, look out! It's heading straight for us! Take co-"

 

Nick shut off the radio mid-sentence, he'd done enough damage already. "Well that went horribly..." he said, slapping himself across the side of his own muzzle. "Way to be subtle, you dumb fox." Nothing had been going to plan ever since they found that damn temple, and it seemed with every move he'd made, things only further spiralled out of control. "Just hope I can find Finn and Judy soon before I manage to somehow screw this up even more," the fox said as he turned the radio back on and resumed his channel surfing.

 

He flipped through several more channels, nothing of interest in any of them beyond reports from patrols, inane arguments between bored mercenaries, and the occasional singing mammal who was either drunk or hadn't realized somebody was listening in. Nick might've even found some of the conversations and impromptu karaoke sessions hilarious if he wasn't so tired and anxious, with every channel he flipped through making him more paranoid that something terrible had befallen his partners. The next channel managed to help him ease up a bit, if only because of how bizarre the conversation was.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“So…would it be called a _box?_ Or maybe a _funny?”_ one curious mercenary was pondering.

 

“What kind of stupid ass question is that?!?!” responded a very perplexed sounding mercenary on the other end. “There’s no way a fox and rabbit would even be able to do something like that. I mean how the hell would he even manage to fit his-”

 

“Okay then...moving on…” Nick shut off the radio, feeling awkward as hell. “Bet if Carrots heard that one, it probably would’ve been enough to kill her from the awkwardness alone, no bullets necessary.” He turned the radio back on and flipped to a channel with an equally perplexing conversation, albeit with a different topic of discussion.

 

_*Kssh*_

 

“No.”

 

“Come on!”

 

“I said no!”

 

“Bru, you’ll barely feel it! Besides, it’s not like we don’t suffer worse injuries on the job all the time. Hell, the burns from your shell casings would probably hurt more.”

 

“For the last time, Wes! I am not going to let you bite my arm ‘just to see what it tastes like!’”

 

“Yikes,” Nick shuddered as he switched channels again. “I knew these guys could be on the depraved side, but that one's in serious need of some sort of intervention…”

 

_*Kssh*_

 

There was no activity on the next channel from what the fox could tell, perhaps he had finally found one that was empty. He opted to wait anyways, just to be sure. After the awkward conversation he'd gotten himself into with Cackler, the last thing he needed was to raise even more suspicions. He already had way too many mammals trying to kill him, he didn't need to help make their job easier by drawing even more attention to himself. Two minutes ended up going by with no activity before Nick finally decided to go for it and keyed in on the radio.

 

“Hello? Anybody there?” he let go of the key and waited in silence, hoping for a response of some kind, a quiet voice in the back of his head reminding him that he was running out of options, that maybe he'd never find the others... Finally, that voice was silenced as static erupted from the radio, followed by a familiar voice.

 

“That you, Kid?”

 

Despite his soreness, the fox jumped with joy.  _Thank the gods, that old bastard is alive!_

 

“Of course I’m alive, you ain’t getting rid of me that easy,” Finnick answered, perplexing the fox and causing him to stop mid-celebration.

 

“Wait...did I say that...or think it?” Nick asked.

 

“What the hell are you talking about? You practically shouted it into the radio,” the old fox responded. “What’s the matter with you? You land on your head or something after you fell out of the plane?"

 

_Wow, I really am starting to lose it...plus, I just ruined my chance to try and play it off cool._

 

“No it’s nothing, I’m fine,” Nick keyed back, feeling a little embarrassed. “Just...been in a weird headspace the last few hours, that’s all. Forget about it, what happened with you and Marian?”

 

“I did my best, but Marian's gone,” a hint of sadness was present in the desert fox’s voice before it took on its normal grumpier tone. “Bailed out before she flew too low, but there’s no salvaging her now, not with the way she lit up when she hit the ground. You owe me big time for that, by the way...”

 

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, you can worry about that after we deal with the armed psycho’s trying to hunt us down,” Nick brushed off. Listening to the grumpy fox's unique brand of 'charm' made for a surprisingly refreshing change of pace. Several hours alone with his own far less appealing personal thoughts and doubts did a lot to make him appreciate the little things, or in this case, the angry insults and occasional threats coming from a little fox. 

 

As positive of a development this had been, though, there was still one other mammal he had to find. “Listen, have you been able to reach Judy? I haven’t seen or heard from her since she bailed out of the plane.”

 

“No, haven’t heard from the bunny, you’re the first mammal I've actually spoken to since we got here, I’ve just been focused on heading north and avoiding Coastline's search parties,” Finnick explained. "They didn't exactly seem to be in the most chatty of moods..."

 

“Nah, blowing shit up and shooting mammals tends to be more their speed," Nick joked. "As for Judy, though, don't think she has a radio to call us with. We didn't exactly have time to gear up when we first got here."

 

“That's putting it mildly. You didn’t have time to grab one either,” Finnick pointed out. “I grabbed mine before I bailed, but I’m guessing you swiped yours off some Coastline idiot.”

 

“Pretty much,” Nick said with a grin.

 

“Huh, so guess you’ve been paying attention after all,” Finnick remarked. “Nice to know some of my advice managed to penetrate that thick skull of yours.”

 

“Just that, your tips on how to pick up girls, and your various approaches to biting off faces,” Nick snarked.

 

“Well at least you made sure to remember the important stuff," Nick could imagine the old fox's grin as he said it. "Anyways, enough messing around, we need to meet up, and soon, Coastline's crawling all over the place. If you’re lucky, I might even not bite your face off for getting Marian shot to shit and just settle with some Coastline asshole, instead." Nick wasn't quite sure how serious the face biting threat was. Finnick usually was more bark than bite, and he'd never actually seen the old fox do it, but that plane did mean a lot to him...

 

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, then we can head north and search for Judy,” Nick explained, hoping that if he didn't bring up the face biting part, then maybe Finn would just forget about it. “Any chance you know of a good landmark where we can meet up? It'll take forever to try and find each other in the jungle, assuming Coastline doesn't find us first...”

 

“I saw some old ruins a few miles from the ridges along the western side of the island when I was parachuting down, probably an abandoned outpost or something,” Finnick explained. “Should be there soon. If you’ve been heading towards the crash site, it shouldn’t take much longer for you to get there.”

 

“Think I can figure out where those are,” Nick said as he pulled out his map to get his bearings. “I’ll meet you there.”

 

“Sounds like a plan, Kid,” Finnick answered. Nick was about to put the radio away when the Finnick spoke up again. “Oh and Kid? Just a heads up, but Coastline’s got way more than a pawful of scouting and seach parties on the island.”

 

“I know,” Nick answered. “I saw the landing boats, looks like Dante and Cackler are going all in on this, they've brought a small army's worth of mercenaries and gear with them.”

 

“You just watch yourself out there," Finnick warned, genuine concern in his voice. "You know they'll be gunning for you. Just remember what I taught you and don’t take 'em lightly, these guys are playing for keeps. Besides, if anybody gets to kick the shit out of you, it's me!” His voice took on its more traditional mix of grumpy and cocky as he said the last part.

 

“Don’t worry, Gramps, I won’t let some Coastline asshole rob you of that pleasure,” Nick chuckled. “Just try and stay out of trouble until I get there.”

 

“Don't worry, Kid, unlike you, I actually know how to keep a low profile,” Finnick shot back. “Just keep me posted if anything happens, I'd rather have a heads up if you wind up doing anything stupid.”

 

“Too late for that last part, but I'll keep you posted of any future actions of the stupid or idiotic variety,” Nick said before keying off the radio. He took one last look at the map, making sure he knew which way he was going, before putting it back in his pack and resuming his treck through the jungle.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Nick, seems to be having a pretty rough day, but hey, at least he finally got a bit of good news at the end on top of everything else, right? Silver lining and all that. Also brought back the Nyala and Cheetah duo from Ch. 5! Wasn't originally planning to have them appear again, but new ideas always seem to spring up and I started to think about other things I could do with them. Who knows, maybe we'll see them again? *wink*
> 
> Also, here's some random trivia for anybody interested:
> 
> "Sanad kavos" is a play on the hindi word "saand ka" which means 'bovine.'
> 
> "Brak" is an afrikaan insult meaning 'mongrel dog,' it seemed like a fitting term for a 'Southern Savannah' mammal to use to demean a fox.
> 
> "Domkop" is another afrikaan insult which translates to 'idiot.'
> 
> "Eina" is pretty much an afrikaan equivalent of 'ouch,' i.e. an expression of pain.
> 
> That's all until next time, hopefully, the next chapter won't take me so long to write, but I hope you guys enjoyed it, regardless. Hope you all stick around, there's still plenty of treasure hunting related hijinx for our trio to get caught up in! But until next time, Sic Parvis Magna and all that!
> 
>  


	10. Heading Upriver

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another update and another chapter! And also finally made it to the double digits! I'll admit the last one kinda got away from me lengthwise, definitely wasn't expecting to ever write a 12k chapter, but this one's closer to the usual chapter length. Anyways, hope you guys enjoy it!

“So that explosion and all that rumbling earlier, that was you?" Finnick asked over the radio. "Why am I not surprised…”

 

“No! No! Not me, that wasn’t my fault,” Nick defended. “I was just trying to get down, it was Coastline that blew up the damn cliff!”

 

“To try to get to you, right?”

 

“Well...yeah…” Nick had to admit, chaos and destruction seemed to follow him wherever he went, even more so than usual if the events of the last week were any indication. “But come on, who the hell brings down an entire cliffside just to kill one mammal?”

 

“Seriously? Have you never ran into mercenaries before or something? That sort of shit is pretty much the only thing they know how to do," Finnick responded. "As far as those morons are concerned, any problem that can't be fixed by shooting or blowing it up is one that can't be solved. Besides, can you really blame them? You’re one of the smuggest assholes I know, it can’t be _that_ surprising that someone would be willing to go to those kinds of lengths if it meant wiping that dumbass grin off your muzzle.”

 

“Ouch, Gramps, bit of a low blow there,” the red fox winced. It didn't take a genius to figure that the desert fox was in one of his sour moods, not that it was uncalled for or anything, given everything that had happened. “I’m guessing you’re still bitter about Marian, then?” 

 

“I’m gonna go ahead and just assume you know what a stupid-ass question that is,” Finnick growled.

 

_That would be a yes, then..._

 

"Still, seems like Coastline's going pretty out of their way to ignore Dante's orders," Nick said, trying to steer the conversation back on topic. "He wants us alive and I'm pretty sure that's gonna be hard to do a mammal buried under tons of rock..."

 

“They don't seem like the types to think that far ahead, they're pretty dumb like that," Finnick guessed. "Besides, given how pissed that striped psycho bastard probably is at us, do you  _really_ think getting taken alive would be a good thing?" 

 

“Point taken,” Nick gulped, unpleasant memories of the fates of other mammals that had been dumb enough to try and get one over on the zebra flashing through his mind. "Still, sounds like Dante and Cackler might be having some 'creative differences' if the mercenaries aren't following orders."

 

“Wouldn’t call that the most shocking of revelations, Kid, neither of them are known for playing well with others,” Finnick pointed out. "Could just be that some of the mercenaries don't think bringing us in alive is worth the effort, it's a lot easier to search a mammal when they're dead, after all. That and they don't care what Dante wants."

 

“That was the impression I got when I was listening in on some of the channels..." Nick remarked. "They must  _really_ want this city if they're still willing to work together in spite of these issues,  guess Judy was right about how badly they needed each other. That's gonna make them a big problem for us.”

 

“No shit, Kid, really? I managed to figure that last part out the first time they tried to kill us back at the temple,” Nick could imagine Finnick rolling his eyes on the other end of the channel. “You got any other insightful observations to share? Maybe you’re gonna tell me we’re on an island, next? Or did you finally realize we’re both foxes?”

 

“Okay, okay, enough already, I get it,” Nick snapped back. “Geez, what is with you today? You're even sassier than normal.”

 

“Well, I’m getting sick of waiting for your slow ass, for starters,” Finnick explained. “Not exactly a big fan of sitting around in one spot while gods know how many Coastline goons are out there looking for us.”

 

“Well as we’ve established, said goons dropped a damn cliff on me and I’m kinda walking it off, still.” Admittedly, Nick was doing far better now, but none of that changed the fact that somebody had tried to bury him under a freaking cliff, so of course he was still feeling some of the ache from that whole ordeal. “So you’ll have to forgive me for not being at my best.”

 

“Just get your ass over here soon, Kid,” Finnick responded. “The longer you take, the higher the chance some Coastline asshole finds us. I'd rather not wind up with either a bullet in the head or taken to Dante so that he can beat my ass." 

 

“Calm down, I'm working on it,” Nick said, double checking his bearings to make sure he was still heading towards the ruins where Finnick was waiting. Things had been rather uneventful ever since the cliff, but given all the crazy shit that had happened to him over the last few hours, he was just fine with that. Finnick had been keeping him company over the radio ever since they re-established contact, and while the old fox was not in the best of moods, it still felt good to finally have somebody to talk to. The desert fox's insults and the occasional threat to bite his face off made for far better conversation than his earlier 'chats' with Coastline, those talks tended to consist mostly of death threats and the occasional request for Nick to stick his head out, something he found far less intellectually stimulating. That being said, it wouldn't have killed the old fox to be a little more pleasant...at least...he liked to think it wouldn't.

 

“Hey, Kid?” Finnick's voice cracked over the radio again.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Don’t you start crying or anything just because I had some harsh words for you, it's the only way your dumb ass ever learns,” Finnick said,  sounding a little quieter than normal. “And while this whole shit show may be your fault, it's still good to know you haven’t managed to get that worthless hide of yours shot yet.”

 

A small smile curled onto Nick’s muzzle. That was about as close to an apology as you'd get from the likes of Finnick. “Noted, thanks for that pep talk, buddy.” The fox hesitated, considering just leaving it at that before changing his mind and keying the radio again, “Listen...Finn…”

 

“Shut up!”

 

“What?” Nick’s ears perked up, confused by the sudden shift in tone. “Is this getting too personal for you or some-”

 

“Seriously, shut up! Before you get me killed,” Finnick quietly growled. “Coastline patrol just showed up.”

 

_Figures those Coastline assholes would ruin the moment..._

 

“Great...did they see you?”

 

“Don’t think so, but looks like they’ve got all the exits covered, not gonna be able to get out without somebody noticing,” Finnick whispered, the sound of rustling in the background. “They’re searching the area, hurry up and get your ass over here before they find me!”

 

“On my way, just stay still and keep quiet,” Nick responded, releasing the comm button and picking up his pace. If he was lucky, the patrol would just do a brief once over of the ruins and move on without noticing Finn, but those weren’t odds he was willing to bet on.

 

He quickly pushed his way through the jungle, hopping over logs and the occasional small stream, determined to get to his partner before Coastline did.  He wanted to call in and check how Finnick was doing, but he dared not risk it. The last thing either of them needed was for Finnick’s radio to go off at the wrong moment and give his position away. No, things were dangerous enough already, he’d just have to trust that Finnick would either call him once the coast was clear or signal him if something went wrong.

 

_*Bang*_

 

The fox nearly jumped at the sound of a gunshot echoing through the jungle. He froze, dreading the worst as a tense silence hung in the air before a whole cacophony of weapons fire erupted along with the incomprehensible shouting of mammals in the distance.

 

_Or gunfire might go off, that'd be another sign that things have gone wrong..._

 

“Gramps, what’s going on? You alright?!?!” Nick shouted into the radio, desperate for some news.

 

“Do I sound like I'm alright?!?!” the small fox angrily shouted back, the gunshots echoing both in the jungle and over the radio. Not an encouraging answer, but at least an angry fox was better than a dead one. “These bastards have me pinned down! Get your ass over here, now!”

 

Nick didn’t even answer, abandoning all pretense of subtlety and caution as he started sprinting in the direction of the gunfire as fast he could. His sole focus at this point was getting to his partner before it was too late, nothing else mattered. The pain and soreness from his injuries, the branches and plants whipping at him as he tore through the jungle, all of those were just small annoyances to be brushed aside.

 

“Kid, I don’t like being one of those ‘any time, now’ guys, but…any time, now!” Finnick badgered. “Only got so many tricks I can pull on these idiots before they start to catch on!”

 

“Just hang in there, buddy! I’m almost there,” Nick answered back, finally starting to see ruins poking through the vegetation. The ruins were a walled off area with a few buildings inside, too small to be a town, from what Nick could gather, it was probably some sort of outpost. The ravages of time had clearly left their mark on the area with large chunks of the walls missing or having collapsed and the buildings within having either been reduced to piles of rubble or empty husks with grass and plants growing over what was left.

 

Once he reached the ruins, Nick climbed up a gap in one of the walls, reaching the top to find a bushpig mercenary already there. He quickly reached for his pistol only to stop once he realized the mammal was slumped over and not moving. Given the surprised look on the mercenary's lifeless face, Nick guessed that Finnick had been hiding up here and took the Coastline mammal by surprise when he climbed up to check it out.

 

“At least that’s one less headache to deal with,” Nick moved forward and peeked over the edge of the wall to the ruins down below where he saw two more mercenaries, a leopard and another bushpig, lying motionless on the ground. “Managed to nail at least three of these assholes on his own, pretty sharp skills, old timer.”

 

Looking over the ruins, he saw a trio of mercenaries holed up behind the remains of one of the buildings, concentrating their fire on an old well.  Nick managed to get a glimpse of Finnick’s oversized ears poking over the edge of the well before sinking back down as a salvo of automatic weapons fire slammed into it. A moment later, the old fox poked his head out from the side, gripping a ridiculously large pawcannon. His partner may have been boxed in and pinned down, but he seemed to be intent on putting up one hell of a fight.

 

“Come on, you bastards! Is that all you got?” Finnick yelled as he fired at his adversaries, each shot cracking off with a near-thunderous roar. Even from the sound alone, it was obvious that the gun had some serious kick to it. “I’ll take on every last one of you!” Nick had no clue how the hell that tiny fox could handle such a huge gun without breaking his arm.

 

Despite how grim things seemed, the situation also provided Nick with a perfect opportunity to turn things around. The mercenaries were too focused on Finnick to notice him, which meant he could get the drop on them. He glanced over at the dead bushpig, an idea beginning to form in his head. He quickly moved over and began searching the mammal, finding an extra magazine that fit his pistol as well as two grenades. “These should do nicely,” he grinned as he attached one of the explosives to his belt and gripped the other in his paw.

 

He looked back down at the three mercenaries behind the ruined building as they traded shots with Finnick. A hare and a striped weasel were grouped close together on the left side of the ruin while a dark-brown sheep with thin-looking wool was by himself on the right. Picking his targets, Nick pulled the pin on the grenade and lobbed it right between the two smaller mammals. “Heads up!” he yelled as the explosive sailed towards them. He wasn’t sure if they heard him, but he knew he definitely had grabbed their attention when they stopped what they were doing, both sets of ears swivelling to the sound of the beeping grenade as it landed between them. Their gazes followed shortly afterwards, ears and fur stiffening in alarm as they realized what it was. 

 

Both mercenaries jumped in surprise and tried to sprint away right as the grenade went off, kicking up a cloud of dirt and sending the hapless weasel flying through the air until he crashed unceremoniously into the wall Nick was hiding on top of. The hare fared a bit better, managing to get a small amount of distance before the grenade went off, but the force of the explosion was still enough to trip him up and slam his head into the corner of some nearby rubble. The buck crashed into the ground hard and slowly rolled back and forth, clutching his head and groaning. He may have been luckier than the weasel, but he was still out of comission.

 

“About time you showed up,” Finnick yelled after the explosion. “What the hell took you so long? You stop to pick daisies or something?”

 

“Oh you know me, Gramps,” Nick shouted with from on top of the cracked wall. “Can't show up late to the party unless I come in with a _bang_!”

 

“If I find out you got here late because you were busy trying to think up that shitty one-liner, you're gonna wish you got buried under that cliff by the time I'm done with you!” Finnick shouted back as he fired at the remaining sheep mercenary. “Now quit being so proud of yourself and help me clear the rest of these guys out!” He moved back behind cover as the sheep returned fire.

 

“Fine, fine, but only because you asked so nicely,” Nick replied, firing at the exposed sheep from behind. His shots went wide, but it still managed to spook the mammal into spinning around and recklessly return fire. Nick was ready though and had already moved back behind cover,  the bullets slammed harmlessly into the solid stone wall. He leaned out again, seeing the alarmed ram try to run for a less exposed area only to get nailed in the back by a shot from Finnick as soon as he stepped out into the open. The sheep managed to let out a surprised bleat, briefly falling onto his knees before collapsing face down into the dirt and stone.

 

“You alright, Gramps?” Nick asked, hopping down from the wall now that the danger had passed.

 

“Nothing that a drink and a nice gal won’t fix, not that I'm gonna find either on this damn island,” Finnick responded, walking over to the wounded hare as he struggled to get back up. "For now, think I'll just settle with giving this asshole a good smack." He cracked his revolver over the buck’s head, knocking him out cold.

 

“Night, night, little bunny,” Nick joked, eyeing the now motionless mercenary.

 

“Pretty sure he was a hare,” Finnick corrected, looking unimpressed.

 

“Eh, doesn’t sound have the same ring to it,” Nick shrugged.

 

“Gods, I don't know what's gonna happen first, either you'll get me killed with jobs like these, or your dumb jokes will give me a stroke...” Finnick growled, his ears suddenly perking and stance becoming more alert as he finished the last part. “Might be the former depending on how this next round goes.”

 

Nick tilted his head in confusion. “Next round? What are you talk-”

 

“They’re over there!” a voice called out.

 

“Shit, more of them!” Nick quickly dove for cover as more Coastline mammals came rushing through a broken section of wall on the other end of the ruins. 

 

“Godsdamn sons of bitches,” Finnick yelled as he fired at the advancing mercenaries, catching a zebra in the chest as he was trying to charge them. “How many of these assholes did Dante and Cackler bring?”

 

“Too many,” Nick yelled back as he fired at the mercenaries, breaking their charge and forcing them to take cover. 

 

“I told you this job was gonna be more trouble than it was worth,” Finnick shouted as he ducked down before the mercenaries could start returning fire.

 

“How was I supposed to know they’d beat us to the island?” Nick yelled, crouched behind a makeshift wall of rubble as it was being riddled with bullets. “It's not like I gave them the coordinates!”

 

“Okay, now I _know_ you were dropped on your head,” Finnick growled back, opening up the chamber in his revolver and sliding in more cartridges. “You know damn well that all it takes is one slip up! They got the jump on us back at the temple because your dumb ass was too reckless and didn't pay attention to the details! And what do you know? Here we are again, stranded in the middle of nowhere with gods knows how many assholes shooting at us because you never think this shit through and it always blows up in our faces!"

 

“Well...I may have hit my head once...or more...I’ve kinda lost track at this point…” Nick conceded. "But I wasn’t being reckless! I made damn sure they wouldn’t be able to find us! I don't know how the hell they beat us here, but it wasn't because of me!”

 

“Oh, that is just a load of crap! _”_

 

“What the hell does that mean?" Nick responded incredulously. "You know what the safehouse was for, right? You think I just wanted to spend four days straight seeing all the different ways you could scowl at me? That was so we could lay low and get Coastline off our backs!"

 

“I’m not talking about _that,_ you dumbass,” Finnick yelled back, pointing towards the mercenaries on the opposite end of the ruins. “I’m talking about _that!”_

 

“What?” Nick peeked over the cover to see what Finnick was pointing at and immediately regretted it. One of the Coastline mercenaries, an oryx, was standing on top of a somewhat intact building ruin, a six-chambered Marekor grenade launcher in his hooves and aimed right at them.

 

“Oh...that…"

 

He briefly saw the oryx fire off a round before slamming down as low as he could. He didn't see the round explode, but he sure as hell felt it when it exploded against his cover, the force from the blast wave rocking him and his ears going flat against his head in an attempt to drown out the noise. He was left disoriented from the blast, a constant ringing in his ears while everything else sounded distant and muted. He didn't even have time to think before he was rocked even harder when a second round struk his cover, showering him in bits of rock and blowing away a good portion of the rubble he was hiding behind.

 

Aware that there probably wasn't enough cover left to protect him from another grenade round, the fox made a break for what he hoped was Finnick's cover. He dove through the air and slammed down on the ground next to his partner, paws covering his head as he felt the force of a third grenade round blow away the rest of his vacated spot. Finnick was yelling something, but it was too muted for him to make out over the constant ringing. All he could do was focus on trying to shelter himself as several more rounds exploded against their cover. Despite the beating, this rubble proved to be far more durable, protecting the two of them from the worst of the barrage with only a small amount of damage to show for it.

 

“Godsdammit, why the hell do the bad guys never play fair?!?!” Nick yelled as the explosions finally stopped and the ringing started to fade.

 

“Because why the hell would they?!?!” Finnick shouted, his voice sounding far less muted than before.

 

“Because...shut up!” Nick tried to respond. He liked to think he was still too dazed from the explosions to come up with anything better. In fact, if anybody asked, that was going to be his excuse, it's not like there was any way to prove that it wasn't, after all.

 

“Nice comeback, Kid” Finnick shot back sarcastically as he peeked over the cover. “Hope you have something better than that for these guys, or we ain't gonna last long enough to share that lame comeback with the bunny!” 

 

Shaking off most of the daze, Nick briefly poked his head over the cover to see what Finnick was talking about. Left of their position, near one of the large walls, a hippo was advancing with a zebra and a hyena on his flanks. To the right, on the opposite end of the ruins, two goats and a cheetah were also approaching. As if that wasn't discouraging enough, the oryx on top of the ruined building was loading more rounds into his grenade launcher in preparation for another salvo. “Don't suppose they'll be considerate enough to give us some time to come up with a plan?”

 

“Do they ever?” Finnick grumbled, looking down at his revolver and checking to see that it was loaded. “Looks like we're gonna have to just make it up as we go."

 

“Always seems to go that way," Nick sighed, loading a fresh magazine into his pistol. "Any regrets if this goes sideways?”

 

“You mean any more than it already has?” Finnick spun the cylinder of his revolver. “Mainly that I won't get to beat your ass myself for getting us into this mess because some Coastline assholes will get to instead." 

 

"Awww, you jealous, Gramps? Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be dying to use you as a punching bag as well," Nick joked as Finnick shot him an irritated glare. If he was gonna die, at least he got to annoy his partner one last time, one had to appreciate the small victories.

 

"Can't believe I'm seriously rooting for these Coastline punks, now," Finnick groaned, getting himself ready.

 

“Well, wouldn't be the first time this ended in disappointment for you," Nick said, chambering a round as he nodded towards his partner. “Ready?”

 

“Let’s just get this over with before it becomes even more awkward,” Finnick nodded back, rising up to return fire.

 

Nick followed suit, directing his fire towards the oryx with the grenade launcher. He managed to land several hits, the oryx stumbling backwards and spinning as one of the shots nailed him in the leg. To the fox's surprise, the oryx's weapon started going off, firing its full load of grenade rounds in random directions while the mammal spun, either that weapon was faulty or the oryx had reflexively pulled down on the trigger when he'd been hit. One round must've gone right into the surface the oryx was standing on because the ground suddenly exploded beneath the mercenaries feet, sending him flying off the building in an almost comical manner.  Another errant round struck the wall right above the mercenary hippo group on the left. They had ducked down and shielded themselves once they noticed the grenade launcher had started going off out of control, failing to notice that the wall above them had been hit and was breaking apart. The three of them started to turn around once they heard the sound of crumbling stone, having just enough time to finally realize that the wall was collapsing before it fell on top of them, burying the whole group beneath a pile of stone rubble. The other group had reacted similarly to the out of control grenade launcher, abandoning their advance and running for cover.

 

“Oh, ho, ho! They're gonna be feeling that one in the morning!” Nick yelled excitedly. “That was just the perfect shot!” Finnick just stared at him with an unimpressed look on his face. “Oh come on, Gramps, even you have to admit that was awesome!”

 

“That was a lucky shot, and you know it!” Finnick growled, firing at one of the goats from the surviving group when he peeked up over the cover, the small fox's attack forcing him back down. 

 

“Yeah, a lucky ass shot that took out half the damn group,” the red fox bragged. “I know the idea of giving somebody a genuine compliment scares you to death, but even _you_ have to admit it takes a special kind of badass to pull that stunt off.”

 

Finnick just rolled his eyes at the boasting fox's comment. “With a head that big, I can't believe these idiots haven't managed to hit you yet, they've gotta have the worst aim in the godsdamn world..."

 

“Listen up, foxes,” one of the mercenaries yelled, breaking up Nick and Finn’s little 'discussion.' “We have you surrounded!”

 

“No you don’t,” Finnick barked out, calling the mammals bluff. There was no way these guys would be trying to talk if they had the advantage, not when their entire reputation was built on their tendency to resolve disputes through the application of bullets and high-grade explosives.

 

There was a brief pause before the Coastline mercenary spoke up again. “Uhhh...we...have you...partly...surrounded.”

 

"Wow, these guys suck at negotiating," Nick smirked. He looked over at Finnick who just gave a non-committal grunt.

 

“We’re gonna give you _one_ chance to come out with your paws up,” the mercenary continued, having apparently run out of ideas. “Or we’re gonna come in and get you ourselves!”

 

"Aww, well would you look at that? Mighty convenient of them to start taking Dante's 'take 'em alive' orders more seriously now that things aren't going their way, don't you think?” Nick snickered quietly to Finnick before shouting back an answer. 

 

“Gee, that’s a tough one, guys, I mean you clearly have things so under control here, right?” Nick pulled the second grenade off his belt and quietly passed it to Finnick. “What do you think, Gramps?”

 

Finnick silently nodded before turning and shouting his answer to the mercenaries. “You know, I think we like it just fine where we are! You boys want us? Feel free to come over and say 'hi' in person!” He quietly started making his way along the cover and disappeared around a corner.

 

“Alright then, fine! You _braks_ had your chance! Any last words?”

 

“Just one,” Nick answered. “Thanks!”

 

“....Thanks?” the mercenary asked after an awkwardly long pause, probably uncertain if he’d heard that right.

 

“Yeah, thanks!” Nick repeated.

 

“For what?”

 

“For letting me keep you nice and distracted,” Nick answered smugly.

 

“Distracted?” the mammal questioned. “What are you-”

 

He was cut off as a grenade came sailing out of nowhere,  the beeping explosive rolling right into the middle of the mercenary group.

 

“Ah…” was all he managed to say before the explosive went off in the three mercenaries' faces, small chunks of stone getting thrown into the air as all three mercenaries were knocked backwards, crashing into rubble and the nearby walls of ruins. What followed afterwards was a tense silence as the two foxes waited to see if there were any more surprises waiting for them.

 

“That all of them?” Finnick finally asked, poking his head up from the vantage point he had managed to sneak to while Nick had been distracting the group.

 

“Looks like it,” Nick answered, looking around and not seeing any more signs of Coastline. “Nice throw, Gramps!”

 

"Whatever," Finnick said, waving Nick off as he made his way back to him.

 

"Still upset about Marian?" Nick asked, raising a brow. "Normally, you'd be more pleased with yourself after pulling off a stunt like that. 'Kicked their asses', 'I've still got it!', 'Way to show those punks' something like that."

 

"Yeah I'm still pissed about Marian, thanks for reminding me of that, by the way," he bared his teeth at Nick. "But more importantly, you should be upset too, these Coastline assholes are probably crawling all over the place by now! At this rate, Dante and Cackler's goons'll probably to stumble onto Henosia through sheer dumb luck before we come even close to finding it. We just got here and this job's already a bust!"

 

"Calm down, Gramps, we've always managed to beat the odds before, we can do it again," Nick assured this partner. "Let's just take this one step at a time. Starting with getting the hell out of here before anybody else decides to show up to see what all that fuss was about."

 

"First smart thing you've said all day," Finnick agreed, turning to look north. "You said the bunny touched down somewhere on the northern half of the island?"

 

"That's my guess," Nick shrugged as he bent over to check a downed mercenary, pocketing a grenade and an extra magazine for his gun.

 

"Then a guess is gonna have to do," Finnick started walking north out of the ruins. "On the way here, I saw a river up this way that leads north, probably as good of a path to take as any. Now come on! we've wasted enough time already!"

 

"You're telling me," Nick nodded, getting up and following Finnick into the jungle.

 

* * *

 

“You sure this is a good idea, Gramps?” Nick asked as they hiked along the river.  “I mean, I know that most of the mammals in Coastline are probably idiots and all, but watching the rivers seems like _Patroling 101_.”

 

“Nah, we should be fine for now,” Finnick waved dismissively. “If there’s any other Coastline in the area, they’d be hoofing it over to the ruins.”

 

“Yeah, well keep an eye out anyways,” Nick suggested. “Had mammals try to kill me on three separate occasions just today, not the kind of streak I want to keep going.”

 

"Knowing you, that streak is probably gonna continue anyways," Finnick said. Nick hated the fact he was probably right. It really was starting to feel like he couldn't go more than an hour without getting shot at or having to climb something precariously high. That sort of thing was frankly quite exhausting, and it was starting to take a toll on both of them. He was already starting to pant, and Finnick wasn't doing much better.

 

“Mam, I’m panting like a hooker in church,” Finnick grumbled.

 

Nick just stared at the desert fox in disbelief, not sure he heard him right. “You brought a hooker to church?”

 

“Why not?” Finnick shrugged, stepping over to the shore of the river and splashing some water into his face. Hopefully, he wouldn't be too long, they couldn’t really afford to waste too much time. Somebody probably heard the ruckus they had made back at the ruins, and even if that wasn't the case, other mammals were bound to come looking for those patrols eventually when they inevitably failed to report in. Sure, they'd probably check out the ruins first as Finnick said, but they'd eventually figure out that the two of them had started heading north, and Nick would've preferred they be as far away as possible once those Coastline goons finally figured that out.

 

The treasure hunter looked down at Finnick again to see how he was doing only for his attention to be drawn to the holstered revolver on the desert fox’s side. Finnick had always possessed a ‘bigger is better’ mentality when it came to weapons, but the size of that thing was just ridiculous. He'd always figured that mentality was the small fox’s way of compensating for his size, that and his generally aggressive manner. Not that he'd ever bring that sort of thing up, knowing Finn, it’d probably be a one-way ticket to Facebitesville.

 

“Knock it off,” Finnick snapped, interrupting Nick’s thoughts.

 

“Knock what off?” Nick tilted his head in confusion.

 

“You know what,” Finnick glared.

 

“I really don’t…”

 

“Come on, Kid. You never stare at another mammal’s piece,” Finnick patted his revolver. “That's just common knowledge.”

 

Nick was starting to wonder if maybe there was something in the water, the heat and humidity had started to mess with Finnick’s brain, or maybe the smaller fox was just getting too old.

 

“What? I don’t...how...you know what, never mind, I don’t even want to know what you mean by that,” Nick waved off. “Listening to your stories feels like a game of Tundran Roulette half the time, and it's just not gonna be the same without Carrots around nearly dying from embarrassment while listening to the whole thing."

 

“If that’s what you think Tundran Roulette is like, then you’ve clearly never played the game,” Finnick chuckled.

 

“Okay, now _that’s_ a story I want to hear about....later,” Nick pointed at Finnick’s revolver. “I’m just wondering what is with that damn pawcannon of yours, it’s nearly the size of your head! I mean, seriously, how the hell can you fire that thing without breaking your arm?”

 

“What can I say? Seeing a spinner has its perks. You certainly get one hell of a workout,” Finnick winked.

 

“Alright, alright, I get it, the old fox can still get tail,” Nick rolled his eyes. “Save it for later, you can shock Judy with that little tidbit once we find her. If nothing else, it'll be fun to see how pink her fur gets.”

 

“Finally, something to actually look forward to,” Finnick laughed as the two of them resumed their trek up the river. 

 

Nick tried to stay alert, searching for any signs of nearby patrols while his ears flicked in every direction for anything out of the ordinary, but he never saw anything unusual and all his ears ever picked up was the sound of rushing water and wildlife. He would occasionally sniff the air, but it didn't yield much either beyond the smell of freshwater and the various scents of the jungle. Despite how excessive it seemed to be, he kept at it since it helped to keep him occupied from certain thoughts he'd rather not dwell on. But eventually, one of said thought started nagging him with increasing intensity.

 

“Hey, Gramps,” Nick spoke up, finally having enough. “You think Judy will be fine, right?”

 

“Of course she’ll be fine, what kind of stupid question is that?”

 

“Well, she’s a reporter,” Nick started. “I don’t know what kind of reporters _you’ve_ met, but the ones I know of tend to be rather...unseasoned...when it comes to things like being stranded on uncharted islands and hunted by trigger-happy lunatics. But hey, that’s just me talking.”

 

“Quit your worrying, Kid, she may be green, but in case you forgot, she was a cop,” Finnick assured his partner. 

 

“Wait, what?” Nick asked in surprise. “Were you listening in from the cockpit? How?”

 

“Big ears, idiot,” Finnick stated flatly, flicking one of them with his paw to emphasise the point. “Would think you'd have noticed something like that after how long we've worked together.”

 

“Right...dumb question…” Nick sighed. “Still, she was only a cop for two days, not exactly a hardened veteran of the force we're talking about.”

 

“What’s your point? She said she was top of her class, remember? She got kicked out because she had a problem with authority,” Finnick reminded him. “You’ve seen her in action, you know she can handle herself just fine when push comes to shove, she certainly managed to kick your ass on more than one occasion.”

 

“Fair point…” Nick conceded. Those weren't what he'd call his proudest moments, but still, he couldn't deny that bunny had a mean right hook and an even meaner roundhouse.

 

“What’s going on with you, Kid?” the desert fox asked. “You may be an idiot, but you’re always sure of yourself to an obnoxious as hell degree. It’s not like you to start worrying and having doubts on the job.”

 

“Doubts? No, no doubts, why would I have doubts?” Nick answered just a bit too quickly. “I mean...it’s not like I spent the last several hours after the crash worrying that you guys had been killed and blaming myself or anything...No...that’d be crazy…”

 

_Nice...way to totally not sound crazy, Nick..._

 

“Uh...huh…” Finnick raised an eyebrow as he glared up at his partner. “This ain’t exactly the time or place for a therapy session, don’t even have any booze to take the edge off. So I’m gonna just blow past all that and go straight to the part where I tell you to stop being a little bitch and get your head in the game. We sure as hell can't afford to deal with personal crap right now, so just stay focused on finding the bunny and making sure we don’t get jumped by Coastline again.”

 

“Yeah...yeah, I can do that,” Nick gulped, focusing on the hike ahead. “You know, Gramps, you’re bedside manner really is the worst.”

 

“And yet, you know it would be so much worse if I was trying to be nice,” Finnick grinned.

 

“Okay, fair point,” Nick admitted. “The thought of you being nice and respectful scares the hell out of me.”

 

"Really?" Finnick laughed. "Guess that means I'm doing something right."

 

As the two treasure hunters continued their trek, they started to hear the sound of falling water, growing in volume the further upriver they went. 

 

“You hear that, Kid?” Finnick asked.

 

“Yup,” Nick’s ears swivelled in the direction of the noise up the river. “Waterfall up ahead.”

 

It wasn't much further until they found themselves at the base of the waterfall in question, water dropping from a cliff above and pooling in a small basin before flowing down the path they had been hiking up. The air was refreshingly misty, the droplets of water making their fur just cool and damp enough to alleviate their exhaustion from the jungle heat. The cliff was far smaller than the one Nick had scaled earlier that day, but it seemed to extend pretty far in both directions, blocking their path north. That being said, the moss covered rocks and ledges looked pretty climbable for any mammal who knew what they were doing.

 

“Guess it’s time to start climbing again,” Nick cracked his knuckles and reached for the closest ledge. He only managed to get a few meters up before Finnick cut in.

 

“Uhh, Kid? I might’ve been able to do that twenty years ago…” he called from below.

 

“What?” Nick looked back down to see that Finnick was still standing at the base of the cliff. “Come on, after all that bragging about the spinner? Not to mention the way you took care of those two Coastline jokers back at the temple? You really expect me to buy that you can pull that off, but you can’t handle a little climbing?”

 

“Don’t try and goad me, Kid,” Finnick growled. “Whacking some idiot in the balls is one thing, trying to climb up _that_ ,” he pointed at the cliff, “while worn out as hell from all the hiking and shooting galleries you've dragged me into is something else entirely!”

 

“Alright, alright, fine, you make a good point,” Nick admitted, climbing back down. “The cigars and booze certainly aren’t doing you any favours, either.”

 

“Hey!” Finnick snapped. “I was saying what my limits are, that wasn’t an invitation to start knocking my godsdamn hobbies!”

 

“Interesting definition of ‘hobbies,’ but fine, I’ll lay off,” Nick said as he touched down on the ground. “Okay then, so...what, do we look for a way around or something?”

 

Finnick shook his head, “No way, we have no clue how far this cliff goes, could take us hours to find another way around.” He gestured back to the path along the river they had been following, “Dante and Cackler already have a huge edge over us in gear and numbers. If we’re gonna stand any chance of keeping up with them, then we sure as hell can’t afford to waste time screwing around on this cliff.”

 

“So...do I carry you up on my back then?” Nick proposed. The menacing glare Finnick shot him in response told him exactly what his partner thought of that idea. “Okay, never mind, then…”

 

“How about this,” Finnick proposed, “you go on ahead and find the bunny while I focus on scanning the channels Coastline is using and see what I can learn. Might give us a better idea of what we’re up against and help track their movements. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but those idiots don’t exactly have the best radio discipline.”

 

“Wait, seriously?” Nick asked in disbelief. “After all the crap we went through to find each other, you’re suggesting we just go ahead and split up?”

 

“Quit being so dramatic, Kid, you’ll have me on speaker so you’ll hardly be alone,” Finnick said as he gestured to his radio. “Besides, you’ll be able to move faster on your own, and we’re gonna need every edge we can get if we’re aiming to actually salvage something from this mess of a job.”

 

“But are you sure you can handle this on your own, Gramps?”

 

“Okay, first off, a bit late to be asking that sort of thing when you’ve already dragged me all the way out to this godsforsaken island and left us without any other options,” Finnick scowled. “And second, don’t question my skills. If I say I can do something, you’d sure as hell better believe I can!”

 

“Alright, fine, don’t need to turn this into an attack against your ego,” Nick relented. “Just be careful, you’re not gonna take it as a personal slight if I say that, right?”

 

“Yeah, yeah, you be careful, too,” Finnick nodded. “I’d tell you not to do anything stupid, but we both know how pointless that would be, so I’ll just settle with telling you not to get yourself killed. Still need to kick your ass at some point down the road and I sure as hell won’t be able to if you break your idiot neck or some Coastline asshole blows your brains out.”

 

“Well thanks for the advice Gramps, you know how much I _love_ having my idiot neck intact and my brains inside my dumb fox head,” Nick smirked as he turned around and prepared to start climbing the cliff again. “Take care,” he said with a wave behind him.

 

“Yeah, you too, Kid,” Finnick said with a wave of his own as he started making his way along the base of the cliff.

 

Nick couldn’t help but feel a pit starting to form in his stomach as he looked up towards the top of the cliff. Bad things tended to happen whenever he climbed; his paws often slipped, ledges seemed to like breaking, and assholes would often get a kick out of using him for target practice, hell, apparently some of them would just try to blow up the cliff he was climbing if they were in a bad enough mood. Part of him wanted to just ignore Finn's advice and look or another way around, but he knew that wasn't an option. The old timer was right, they couldn't afford delays, not with how badly outnumbered they were. He'd just have to suck it up, start climbing and hope for the best. 

 

“Gods...please let this actually go smoothly for once...” 

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hooray, Nick finally found Finnick! And then they had to split up again, being the underdog's gotta suck >.< But hey, at least they can still keep in touch, that's good, right?
> 
> Just as a heads up, I've got a Post-Grad program starting up in September that'll probably be taking up a lot of time. I'll still be working away at this story, but I can't say for certain how long the next chapter will take me. Maybe it'll be the usual waiting period, maybe longer, won't be able to say for certain until I start my program proper. Either way, hope you enjoyed this one and I'll be working away at the next one when I can until it's ready to post.
> 
> Until then, as always, Sic Parvis Magna!


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